The Art of Being Heard
When survivors turn pain into paint,
poetry, and protest
‘Stolen Daughter’ (01.06.22) by Her Mum
Blue eyeliner pencil on skin.
Created as a small ritual of grief and resistance in response to domestic violence and family court abuse, this work is rewritten each time it fades — a daily act of remembrance and determination to seek justice for a stolen child. Written on the womb that grew her, it keeps the artist’s hands busy and her purpose clear.
Since sharing this piece, the artist has received other womb-written stories from mothers, grandmothers, aunts and siblings whose children have been taken or are missing — a reminder that child removal creates ripples of unspoken grief across entire families and communities.
SHERA (See, Hear, Empower, Respond, Act) brings together experts in health, law, human rights, and social care - including leading voices such as Dr Elizabeth Dalgarno, Dr Emma Katz, and Dr Adrienne Barnett - to expose the harms faced by women and children in the family courts and to push for systemic reform.
Through art, poetry, and survivor-led storytelling, SHERA amplifies lived experience in powerful and creative ways. Their Arts and Domestic Abuse initiative invites mothers and children to share their work - paintings, poems, performances - as a means of documenting truth and reclaiming narrative from the trauma of coercive control and court-induced abuse.
From the poem A Failed Survivor to the vibrant Speaking Out pieces created at Bristol’s survivor conference, these works stand as both testimony and resistance - reminders that genuine reform begins with listening to those who have lived it.
Like SHERA, Make Yourself Heard believes that art can cut through policy language and statistics to reveal the human reality beneath. Through MYH x Art, we aim to create space for survivors and allies to express resistance, healing, and hope - using creativity as both a record and a release. Whether through words, visuals, or performance, these works remind us that systemic change begins with personal truth and that art is one of the most powerful tools we have to make ourselves heard.
Explore more at SHERA Research Group - links below.
If you’re a mother or child who has created art in response to experiences of domestic abuse, violence, or the family courts, SHERA Art welcomes you to share your work via their get in touch page. We’re also open to submissions from fellow survivor and victim creatives who wish to collaborate, contribute, or use their art to help amplify these experiences and drive change. Feel free to email jadeblue@makeyourselfheard.org for more information.
“Services need more heart.”
Artwork created by 'A domestic abuse victim mother from Bristol'
Those words, painted over an anatomical heart by a survivor from Bristol, capture the essence of what the SHERA Research Group stands for - a call for empathy, justice, and change within systems that too often retraumatise those they claim to protect.
