Canaries in the Mine

The concept of survivors as the “canaries in the mine” helps to shift the unproblematic sense of what is ordinary and healthy, and whose judgment of how serious the violence is should count ⁶. Miners carried canaries (or sometimes other birds) into a mine to provide an early warning system for lethal gas. The birds were more sensitive than humans to the gas - low levels were toxic to them.

When the birds keeled over, they were not seen as overreacting. Their reaction to the gas was a valuable warning. Even though the miners could not sense the gas, it was present, and they knew they should leave the mine before the levels also became lethally toxic to them. If we view traumatized women's reaction to “lower” levels of violence as a warning that violence is toxic to us all, rather than assessing that women need to lessen their reactions and get them under control, we would see those reactions as useful warnings that societal violence needs to be brought under control. Several survivors I interviewed described the sensitivity they felt they had gained from experiencing trauma as a valuable asset. They spoke, for example, of their sensitivity to “reading” the danger in a situation, or their ability to sense someone's intentions. Some suggested that their experience would be very different if their sensitivity were valued and sought out, rather than feeling that they must hide it and act “normal,” disguising their discomfort.

In the literacy field, as in the rest of society, there seems to be little focus on the extent of women's experiences of violence. This silence allows the preservation of the implication that a “normal” life is one in which violence is not experienced.

Possible Actions:

• Programs/literacy organizations and networks could initiate and encourage discourse about violence, in women's lives both outside and inside the classroom so that an awareness of the issues is built into all programming. This might include a whole range of ways of making the issues visible, such as: workshops for staff, volunteers and learners, posters, emergency phone numbers on view, safety audits and strategies, materials, curriculum on issues of violence....... .
  
  
• Review attendance policies and program expectations to ensure that they do not create further barriers to the participation of women who are experiencing, or have experienced, violence.
  
  
• Examine program approaches and policies to assess whether they perpetuate women's dependence and vulnerability or support women in developing greater personal power.

6 Thanks to Susan Heald (1997) for this concept of the canaries in the mine, and for many discussions that helped me see how easily I can slip into accepting up-problematically what is normal and abnormal and seeing health as no longer “overreacting”.