The Ontario Rural Woman Abuse Study (ORWAS), final report

APPENDIX D

RESEARCHERS’ COMMENTARY AND REFLECTIONS

Captured by a community researcher prior to the last ORWAS workshop

It is our hope that we have accurately reflected the voices of the women who participated in this research.  We thank them for trusting us with their stories, and we commend them for their courage.  Their strength was inspiring for all of us.  We also want to express our thanks to the many community members, leaders and service providers who took the time to give us their thoughtful input on the issue as they see it in their community.

We were overwhelmed by the extent to which fear dominates the lives of women survivors of violence.  As we expected, they told us how terrified they were of leaving their abuser, and of how much more terrified they were of staying.  But we were unprepared for the fact that many of them, now four or five years after leaving, still find fear to be a daily companion.  They have their own houses, jobs, lives, and yet his ghost still haunts them.  Some have to live in the same small town, some still have contact because of custody arrangements, and some are still being followed.  Does the fear ever end?

The women’s pain ambushed us all.  Although most of us had prior experience working with the issue of violence against women, we were all struck by how the stories affected us.  We experienced some of the effects of secondary trauma with which workers in this field are familiar, such as sadness, sleep disturbance, fear, and anger, to name a few.  Did the women who told us their stories suffer from reliving the trauma for the sake of this project?  Further research needs to be done to explore the impact of participating in such a study, whether the participant is a researcher or a ‘subject’.

At the same time, the collaborative process yielded many rewards for the researchers.  Throughout consultation, problem definition, report writing and rewriting, analysis and debate, the process remained respectful of our own experiences and those of the women whose stories we heard.  The principal researchers at Justice Canada affirmed and valued each person’s contribution equally.  Community researchers, in turn, made every effort to involve the women survivors in each stage of the project.  Their response to this report will tell us how good a job we have done of reflecting their experiences.

It is clear to us that there is sympathy at the community level for women who are victims of violence.  Without exception, community members expressed their concern, but they also spoke of their frustration with the lack of awareness that exists and the lack of action on this issue in the rural communities.  Again, we heard the call for more public education about the complex and multifaceted nature of woman abuse.  Again, we heard about the ineffectiveness of the criminal justice system in dealing with this issue.  Again, we heard about the toll that limited funding has taken on social and health services.  It is depressing to realise that violence against women has been a public issue for several decades now and yet there seems to have been so little progress.  We hope that this study will result in action at the community and the policy level.