Historic Trauma and Aboriginal Healing

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Introduction PTSD is a syndrome that can occur following all types of extreme stressors. However, significant to this research is that: [I]t is not only the event itself that causes the characteristic symptoms. The psychological atmosphere in a society [culture] is clearly a factor that facilitates or hinders the process of coping with stressful life events. It may be precisely this climate that will enlarge or even cause the problems of victims and survivors (Kleber, Figley and Gersons, 1995:2). As noted above, Aboriginal people have identified this disorder themselves. Many communities have requested that PTSD be considered a diagnostic tool in the newly created healing centres across Canada. More importantly, and in a more immediate sense, there continues to be compelling evidence of a negatively altered and unhealthy psychological atmosphere in Aboriginal culture that must be addressed and healing support must be made available. PTSD plays a role in the influence of historic trauma transmission (HTT) that will be discussed in a proposed model for healing (see Part III). For many years, psychologists and social workers have directed their attention to continued dislocation and the social and cultural disintegration of Aboriginal people and their communities, while anthropologists have focused on specific cultural questions and chronicling ethnographic detail. There has been an understandable emphasis of researchers on the negative aspects of colonialism and historic hegemonic influences, such as the residential school experience. Most of these experiences have been viewed as “outside” influences impacting cultural mores and development. However, a hard look has not been taken at the “inside” influences of long-term psychological response and emotional impairment on community development and cultural sustainability. It has taken time for it to be generally accepted, even in mental health care circumstances, that traumatic situations may produce long, enduring changes in adjustment and personality. During the past decade, Aboriginal people on the inside of these anthropological, psychological and social welfare studies have identified a phenomenon termed “generational grief” (a continuous passing on of unresolved and deep-seated emotions, such as grief and chronic sadness, to successive descendants). This research will examine the effects of psychogenic (of mental origin) trauma and unresolved grief, both historic and contemporary. The effects of unresolved psychogenic trauma on Aboriginal people, termed generational, intergenerational or multigenerational grief, has been described by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation as: Intergenerational or multi-generational trauma happens when the effects of trauma are not resolved in one generation. When trauma is ignored and there is no support for dealing with it, the trauma will be passed from one generation to the next. What we learn to see as “normal”, when we are children, we pass on to our own children. Children who learn that physical and sexual abuse is “normal”, and who have never dealt with the feelings that come from this, may inflict physical abuse and sexual abuse on their own children. The unhealthy ways of behaving that people use to protect themselves can be passed on to children, without them even knowing they are doing so (Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 1999:A5). 2
Introduction This concept involves physical, mental, emotional and spiritual trauma, which can be understood within a similar framework. In Sandy Johnson’s The Book of Elders, Carol Anne Heart Looking Horse discusses “the historical grief we bear [as a people] and its relation to not only the attempted eradication of our cultures, but also the trauma our parents experienced as they were forced through this (residential school) [experience]” (as cited in Morrison, 1997:65). She observes that: As tribal nations regain control over the education of their own children … Indian teachers have been able to teach our young people about the relationship between this history and our parents’ personal experience (as cited in Morrison, 1997:65). It is proposed that this history and its impacts go back further than is commonly acknowledged and begins with the infectious diseases that were brought ashore with the first European arrivals to this continent. The experience of historic trauma and intra-generational grief can best be described as psychological baggage being passed from parents to children along with the trauma and grief experienced in each individual’s lifetime. The hypothesis is that the residue of unresolved, historic, traumatic experiences and generational or unresolved grief is not only being passed from generation to generation, it is continuously being acted out and recreated in contemporary Aboriginal culture. Unresolved historic trauma will continue to impact individuals, families and communities until the trauma has been addressed mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. Research completed by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation has already demonstrated that as abused children grow up in our communities, they learn specific behaviours and build defense mechanisms to protect themselves. These behaviours and defense mechanisms can be seen as healthy and dysfunctional at the same time. They are healthy because they help the individual survive untenable situations; and unhealthy because the individual invariably ends up imbalanced and/or continues to blame himself or herself for the abuse experienced, may lack trust and may act out the abuse experienced in a variety of dysfunctional ways. Judith Herman (1997) developed a theory of individual responses to psychogenic trauma she termed complex post-traumatic stress disorder (Appendix 1). Following Herman, a theory has been developed that examines the role of post-traumatic stress disorder in what is termed historic trauma transmission (HTT). This stems from the impacts of epidemics immediately after contact during the 1400s, followed by the transmission of overwhelming and unresolved emotions to contemporary generations. Aboriginal people are not only suffering from the impacts of generational grief, they are acting it out at personal and cultural levels and recreating trauma as a way of life. Not every single individual manifests overt PTSD symptoms in their lifetime, but the expression of latent symptomatology can be extrapolated from the high incidence of lateral violence, family breakdown and community dysfunction. Over time, the experience of repeated traumatic stressors become normalized and incorporated into the cultural expression and expectations of successive generations, while trauma manifesting as culturally endemic will not be necessarily and readily identifiable as a specific or individual disorder. It is accepted, however, that “traumatic events often have widespread and devastating impacts on health and national and community stability, even when only a few individuals are primary victims” (Ursano, McCaughey and Fullerton, 1994:3). It is equally important to consider that “the meaning of any traumatic event is a complex interaction of the event itself and the individual’s past, present, and expected future as well as 3
Page 1 and 2: Historic Trauma and Aboriginal Heal
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents Historic Trauma a
Page 5 and 6: Table of Contents Definitions------
Page 7 and 8: Definitions This glossary of terms
Page 9 and 10: Executive Summary This study propos
Page 11: Introduction [A] healing ritual cha
Page 15 and 16: Introduction of war and disease los
Page 17 and 18: Introduction Once the physical make
Page 19 and 20: Introduction Many historical facts
Page 21 and 22: Chapter 1 Historical Background Eur
Page 23 and 24: Chapter 1 In addition, once the Ind
Page 25 and 26: Chapter 1 patients who broke out in
Page 27 and 28: Chapter 1 From the earliest epidemi
Page 29 and 30: Chapter 1 also more than likely tha
Page 31 and 32: Chapter 1 and the lives of about 30
Page 33 and 34: Chapter 1 beliefs would have been w
Page 35 and 36: Chapter 1 journals that could be re
Page 37 and 38: Chapter 1 The European continent ex
Page 39 and 40: Chapter 2 Analyzing the Trauma In t
Page 41 and 42: Chapter 2 Soon after contact with t
Page 43 and 44: Chapter 2 Early Period - Cultural T
Page 45 and 46: Chapter 2 For many decades, researc
Page 47 and 48: Chapter 2 Soon, it became apparent
Page 49 and 50: Chapter 2 the Grandmothers, the Mot
Page 51 and 52: Chapter 2 Acculturation is more tha
Page 53 and 54: Chapter 2 Hurons” (Trigger, 1985:
Page 55 and 56: Chapter 2 people (and people versus
Page 57 and 58: Chapter 2 transgression; [and becam
Page 59 and 60: Chapter 2 There is often the feelin
Page 61 and 62: Chapter 2 There are many consequenc
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Chapter 2 repetition of traumatic e
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Chapter 2 of operating: power throu
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Chapter 2 White Russians and Ukrain
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Chapter 2 native people in western
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Chapter 2 In many parts of Australi
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Chapter 2 In 1975 through to 1979,
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Chapter 3 A New Model: Historic Tra
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Chapter 3 characteristics more typi
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Chapter 3 It is reasonable to think
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Chapter 3 available. Consequently,
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Chapter 3 contain some kind of seco
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Chapter 3 of traumatic memories and
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Chapter 3 Implications for Healing:
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Chapter 3 life (van der Kolk, van d
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Chapter 3 a result of contact with
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Chapter 3 and memory on to next gen
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Chapter 4 The Elders Speak Today, s
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Chapter 4 [T]he basic purpose is fo
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Chapter 4 information in my DNA Str
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Chapter 4 Further, the spiritual or
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Chapter 4 Lee, who is of Cree ances
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Appendix 1: Complex Post-Traumatic
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References Aboriginal Healing Found
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References Buchbinder, G. (1977). E
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References Elder, B. (1988). Blood
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References Hocking, B. (1993). Abor
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References McCormick, Rod (1997). H
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References Rotter, J.B. (1966). Gen
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References van der Kolk, B.A., O. v
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Aboriginal Healing Foundation 75 Al
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