Historic Trauma and Aboriginal Healing
by Cynthia C. Wesley-Esquimaux, Ph.D. and Magdalena Smolewski, Ph.D.
by Cynthia C. Wesley-Esquimaux, Ph.D. and Magdalena Smolewski, Ph.D.
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Introduction<br />
This concept involves physical, mental, emotional <strong>and</strong> spiritual trauma, which can be understood within<br />
a similar framework. In S<strong>and</strong>y Johnson’s The Book of Elders, Carol Anne Heart Looking Horse discusses<br />
“the historical grief we bear [as a people] <strong>and</strong> its relation to not only the attempted eradication of our<br />
cultures, but also the trauma our parents experienced as they were forced through this (residential<br />
school) [experience]” (as cited in Morrison, 1997:65). She observes that:<br />
As tribal nations regain control over the education of their own children … Indian<br />
teachers have been able to teach our young people about the relationship between this<br />
history <strong>and</strong> our parents’ personal experience (as cited in Morrison, 1997:65).<br />
It is proposed that this history <strong>and</strong> its impacts go back further than is commonly acknowledged <strong>and</strong><br />
begins with the infectious diseases that were brought ashore with the first European arrivals to this<br />
continent.<br />
The experience of historic trauma <strong>and</strong> intra-generational grief can best be described as psychological<br />
baggage being passed from parents to children along with the trauma <strong>and</strong> grief experienced in each<br />
individual’s lifetime. The hypothesis is that the residue of unresolved, historic, traumatic experiences<br />
<strong>and</strong> generational or unresolved grief is not only being passed from generation to generation, it is<br />
continuously being acted out <strong>and</strong> recreated in contemporary <strong>Aboriginal</strong> culture. Unresolved historic<br />
trauma will continue to impact individuals, families <strong>and</strong> communities until the trauma has been addressed<br />
mentally, emotionally, physically <strong>and</strong> spiritually. Research completed by the <strong>Aboriginal</strong> <strong>Healing</strong><br />
Foundation has already demonstrated that as abused children grow up in our communities, they learn<br />
specific behaviours <strong>and</strong> build defense mechanisms to protect themselves. These behaviours <strong>and</strong> defense<br />
mechanisms can be seen as healthy <strong>and</strong> dysfunctional at the same time. They are healthy because they<br />
help the individual survive untenable situations; <strong>and</strong> unhealthy because the individual invariably ends<br />
up imbalanced <strong>and</strong>/or continues to blame himself or herself for the abuse experienced, may lack trust<br />
<strong>and</strong> may act out the abuse experienced in a variety of dysfunctional ways.<br />
Judith Herman (1997) developed a theory of individual responses to psychogenic trauma she termed<br />
complex post-traumatic stress disorder (Appendix 1). Following Herman, a theory has been developed<br />
that examines the role of post-traumatic stress disorder in what is termed historic trauma transmission<br />
(HTT). This stems from the impacts of epidemics immediately after contact during the 1400s, followed<br />
by the transmission of overwhelming <strong>and</strong> unresolved emotions to contemporary generations. <strong>Aboriginal</strong><br />
people are not only suffering from the impacts of generational grief, they are acting it out at personal<br />
<strong>and</strong> cultural levels <strong>and</strong> recreating trauma as a way of life. Not every single individual manifests overt<br />
PTSD symptoms in their lifetime, but the expression of latent symptomatology can be extrapolated<br />
from the high incidence of lateral violence, family breakdown <strong>and</strong> community dysfunction.<br />
Over time, the experience of repeated traumatic stressors become normalized <strong>and</strong> incorporated into the<br />
cultural expression <strong>and</strong> expectations of successive generations, while trauma manifesting as culturally<br />
endemic will not be necessarily <strong>and</strong> readily identifiable as a specific or individual disorder. It is accepted,<br />
however, that “traumatic events often have widespread <strong>and</strong> devastating impacts on health <strong>and</strong> national<br />
<strong>and</strong> community stability, even when only a few individuals are primary victims” (Ursano, McCaughey<br />
<strong>and</strong> Fullerton, 1994:3). It is equally important to consider that “the meaning of any traumatic event is<br />
a complex interaction of the event itself <strong>and</strong> the individual’s past, present, <strong>and</strong> expected future as well as<br />
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