The Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre (ORCC) is asking the public to submit patches with supporting messages for sexual assault survivors to be combined into a giant quilt.
According to Tara Henderson, the public education and fundraising co-ordinator at the ORCC, the quilt will be part of an art installation for sexual assault awareness month that will be displayed at City Hall in early May.
Henderson said one in four women, one in eight men, and 50 per cent of transgender and gender nonconforming people report experiences of sexual assault.
Samantha Peters, a third-year law school student at the University of Ottawa, made a patch for the quilt. It was made out of a white T-shirt with the words “I hear you” in colourful letters to reflect the diversity of people affected by sexual violence.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of friends and family about their experiences of sexual violence and they just feel like people weren’t really listening to them, or that when they filed a police complaint they didn’t feel like they were really being heard,” Peters said.
According to Statistics Canada, police recorded approximately 21,000 cases of sexual assault across Canada in 2009, many in fear of not being believed.
Henderson said survivors of sexual violence seldom feel supported in the processing of seeking legal justice.
“We’re going to try to push back on that narrative and let them know they’re not alone and there is support out there,” Henderson said. “More and more people are speaking out about [this] issue and trying to press for systemic change, but our justice system, our legal system, and our social constructs are all really difficult when it comes to really addressing this issue.”
Peters added she hopes her message will bring light to the issue that survivors often feel alone, blamed, and shamed when they speak up about their experiences with sexual violence.
“If [individuals] are allowed to wrap themselves in [the quilt] then what an amazing thing to be literally surrounded by love—by people who support you and believe you and hear you,” she said.
Henderson said T-shirts are being “upcycled” into canvasses with messages of solidarity because it is important to reframe negative experiences into something new.
“Reframing trauma into strength is one of the core things we do,” Henderson said. “It’s never positive to have experienced [sexual violence], but so many people have found empowerment through taking action.”
Henderson said the solidarity quilt was inspired by the success of the AIDS quilt in the 1980s for sending the messages of support. The quilt was started in 1987—during the height of the AIDS epidemic—and is now composed of 48,000 panels.
“Family members and loved ones created patches about how HIV and AIDS had affected their lives and made a giant quilt out of these individual pieces to really show the vastness of support and to let people . . . know that they weren’t alone,” she said.
Henderson said the ORCC has currently collected approximately 50 patches and they are accepting submissions until May 1 at various drop-off locations in Ottawa.
“It’s really as big as the will of the people,” she said. “So I think we need collective action to push back on this because it’s happening to individuals, but it’s because of a social problem.”
