Red Shoes on the seawall and supporting survivors of gender-based violence

Denisse Tramolao, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Red Shoes on the seawall

 "You know this violence getting worse, this place getting more violent" the teacher told me as we ate ice cream on the seawall. There is a nice breeze, not too cool, and ice-cream was cooling. We were watching on a bit, far from the 

The Women and Gender Equality Commission and Civil Society National Reference Group hosted a Red Shoe event on the Kingston Seawalls on 25 November, 2024 as part of activities to commemorate the 16 Days of activism against gender-based violence.

In 2009, Mexican artist Elina Chauvet  created an installation of red shoes- zapotos rojas- to remember Mexican women who were killed in Juárez, Mexico. Since then the event has been replicated in other countries as part of the activism against gender-based violence.

In the minibus to the seawall, driver was playing music where DJ was talking about battyboy and how he not into violence but self defence (against battyboys). A lot of the men and boys who beating and abusing women and girls and other men and boys doing so because of the DJ "self-defence" against an imaginary batty boy who he invoked about 10 times in the ride from Church Road to Kingston. Not sure if the DJ would ever wear a red shoe but others do.

The red shoes are in circles on the seawall. Light breeze blowing. There are images of some of the women who died from men they knew. I can't look at them without feeling like I failed them.

One of the speakers spoke that we needed to remember how the women and girls lived and not how they died. Gaiutra D. Bahadur had researched femicide in Guyana in the research for her book Coolie Woman: An Odyssey of Indenture. I am working on the archiving of the research, and I had to take breaks while trying to figure out how to write the lives of the women, killed by men who knew them. 

So I buy ice-cream, and the seawall is big enough to move away without moving away.

The violence can't done as the teacher said.  Another speaker gave testimony about some of the more recent cases. 

 

Supporting survivors of gender-based violence

One woman said that she is a survivor, and that she was glad she made the decision or else she would have ended up there - pointing to the circles of red shoes on the seawall.  Another This evening during the open mic on the seawall, one survivor shared her story. She sought help from family and church first and fortunately found support in the church though the family was difficult. 

The first time I noted International Day against Violence against Women was in November 1995 when Help & Shelter launched its crisis centre.   The Domestic Violence Act was passed in 1996 and since then non-governmental organisations and the Government have implemented different initiatives to deal with domestic violence especially. 

Police have been receiving training since 1994, and this continues without any clear accountability mechanisms even as police and soldiers and so are in abusive intimate relationships.

The Government has the 914 help line, and opened the second Hope and Justice Centre which is meant to provide one-stop services. There have been mumblings about justice meaning restorative justice (or meking up?)

Some advocates against gender-based violence have insisted that Government must not  use restorative justice to deal with domestic violence and family violence.

Supporting survivors includes counselling, access to safe housing, access to legal help and justice, access to money, access to health services , access to social services and being in healing community.

The trouble for me is that we will be dealing with gender-based violence, by hoping that survivors will report, and depending on who the perpetrator is,  holding the perpetrator accountable.  We have not worked out perpetrator accountability when there is no police story.

But, as one speaker noted , that in the history of Guyana dealing with gender-based violence, the deaths and injuries continue even as reports increase. 

Another speaker said that ending gender-based violence can only be done if everybody checks their use of violence - I have learned that means ending all forms of violence, including the dominant ways of being man and masculine. 

I eat the ice-cream knowing that this not going to happen any time soon - as Israel kills Palestinians and , and parents and teachers beat children as part of 'we culture'; and the rush for oil is causing damage to the Earth;  and people voting for men who abuse women, and  DJ in minibus encouraging bus passengers to use self-defence against the battyboy of  their nightmares.

I could not look much more at the red shoes on the seawall, feeling the sadness that there will be red shoes on other paths for a long time to come.