Calgary Police Service Interpretive Centre

by Michale Lang

I recently visited the Calgary Police Service Interpretive Centre to see their new exhibit on Domestic Abuse and Family Violence. I could not, however, limit my visit to just one exhibit because this highly interactive Interpretive Centre always draws me to try everything and causes me to be late for my subsequent appointments.

My experience in the new exhibit began in an ordinary kitchen. The details of this simple room tell terrifying stories of violence and abuse. I first noticed that the apparently ordinary wallpaper had names inscribed within the pattern. It took me only seconds to realize that these were the names and ages of people who had been killed as a result of domestic abuse:

• Flora Nelson 75

• Misty Dawn Boudreau 13

• Baby Beaudoin

• Barbara McCune 83

• 5 members of the Gakhal Family

It also took me only seconds to understand that domestic abuse crosses all economic, cultural and age boundaries.

"The whole thing started with a bad day" begins the circular text on the throw rug in front of the sink – what a way to bring home the cycle of abuse! Flowers on the table with a note, "Sorry Honey, it won’t happen again." Turn the handle on the door and hear the argument that is certainly emotional and could easily escalate to physical abuse. But it’s not all hopeless. This audio track ends with a couple working out their differences peacefully and just outside the door, a pathway leads to help, an office where anyone can go for information on how to stop the violence. The exhibit also profiles victims and abusers and reinforces, "Abuse is wrong in any language." It leads visitors to examine their own attitudes and misconceptions as well as providing startling factual information such as: "19^th Century British courts punished abusive husbands only when wives had sustained permanent injury" and "Canada only made wife assault illegal in 1965."

The exhibit effectively incorporates computer interactives, puzzles and questioning. It takes difficult and painful subject matter and leads the visitor to a deeper understanding of a problem that is much more prevalent in our society and in our city than most of us would like to acknowledge. But it also provides hope and shows us that there is a way out, as do many of the other exhibits in the Interpretive Centre.

After leaving the newest exhibit in the Centre, I decided to return to some of my old favorites. My 20^th century, politically correct sensibility is always shocked by the 1889 attitudes toward natives presented in one of the exhibits. An early jail cell which, during its time, had been compared to the Bastille, is another exhibit that challenges, educates, provokes and entertains.

Although the artifacts from early Calgary policing fascinate me, I am most drawn to the exhibits on contemporary and often controversial issues. The exhibit on prostitution is disturbing in its honesty. It was from this exhibit that I learned the average age of entry into prostitution is thirteen and a half years old and that 64% of Alberta female prostitutes are 15 or younger. Actual letters in the childish handwriting of a young prostitute who died on the streets, put a human face to a problem most of us are able to ignore. A new section on male prostitution will soon be added.

A theme that runs through many of the exhibits is that life on the streets is a dead end. One exhibit literally leads the visitor to a dead end where one can read a tragic and all-too-real suicide note while a young voice also reads it aloud. The note documents this 16-year-old’s path to suicide in 1987.

Although it deals with difficult and very serious subject matter, I want to stress that the Calgary Police Service Interpretive Centre is not all doom and gloom. I had a lot of fun at a computer terminal where I was able to make decisions while interacting with police on video. I chose "Crime in Progress" and it was a real challenge! Because these interactive exhibits are so popular, three new computer terminals are being added. I also got to sit on a real police motorcycle and in a real police car and I even got to turn on the flashing blue and red lights. There were crimes to solve and lots of stuff to look at. I was able to take my own fingerprints as well as being able to look at exhibits of early fingerprint and facial reconstruction kits. It was awesome (to borrow a phrase I overheard from a young visitor)! Many activities at the Centre engage at least two of the senses, which means that people will likely learn more effectively from them.

As a museum professional, I feel that the Calgary Police Service Interpretive Centre does what museums should be doing. The exhibits challenge and provoke visitors to think about events that are occurring in our own city every day. It is not easy to look at the darker side of our community, but this museum does it well. Through educating its visitors about difficult issues that we may otherwise ignore, the Centre truly fulfils the ICOM definition of a museum by contributing to society and its development. The new exhibit on domestic violence opened officially on May 12, 1999.

Family Abuse Facts

• The common expression ‘rule of thumb’ comes from early British Common Law which ruled that a man could beat his wife as long as the rod used was not wider than his thumb.

• In 1984 it was made illegal for a man to sexually assault his wife.

• One in five children in any given school classroom is either abused or sees one of their parents abusing the other.

• Of adults who are abusive to their partner or children about 80% were abused or witnessed abuse as a child.

• Abuse occurs to males and females of all ages, in all types of communities and within all of socio-economic levels and cultures.

• Child abuse is placing in danger the well-being of children which includes harming them physically, emotionally, mentally or sexually.

• The handicapped are at greater risk of abuse because they can be easily cut off from relatives and friends. Neglect of a victim’s needs such as meals, medication and assistance with dressing and cleanliness are forms of abuse experienced by the handicapped.

• Women of diverse cultures may remain in abusive relationships because of threats by their partners to have them deported, to leave the country with the children, or simply because it is difficult for women whose ability to speak English is poor to know how to seek help within the community.

• While physical abuse by females does occur, husband abuse is more likely to be psychological (mental/emotional).

• It was not until the end of the nineteenth century that legislation made wife assault illegal in Britain and much of the United States. Canada only made wife assault illegal in 1965.

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