Historic Trauma and Aboriginal Healing

Introduction
Once the physical make-up of the colonized society was changed through the devastating effects of
infectious diseases and restricted access to economic resources (cultural transition), both cultural and
social structures became vulnerable to changes, modifications and, ultimately, deterioration and
disintegration (cultural dispossession). Consequently, the destruction of cultural autonomy, social
integrity and cultural identity, as well as hundreds of years of relentless cultural oppression caused
profound changes in the psychological make-up of Aboriginal people, discontinuities on interpersonal
and communal levels, social and interpersonal conflicts, psychological dissociation on cultural levels,
and mental anguish on individual levels (cultural oppression).
It is further proposed that what was done to Indigenous people in the Americas had all the characteristics
of genocide and, as such, evoked similar responses to trauma that researchers observe not only in people
who survived genocide, but also in their children and grandchildren. To provide evidence for the theory
of trauma response and transmission and to confirm the similarities, the issue of genocide is discussed.
A variety of stories about Australian Aboriginal societies, detailed psychological research that deals with
genocide victims’ reactions to their terrible experiences, as well as current studies on post-traumatic
stress disorder are presented. The myriad effects of historic trauma, known as a “complex or cultural
post-traumatic stress disorder” have become deeply embedded in the worldview and collective
consciousness of Aboriginal people, together with a sense of learned helplessness. A cognitive social
theory of learned helplessness and of internal versus external locus of control are also discussed in the
broader context of social identity formation and cultural reactions to historic and social forces continuously
influencing inter and intra group relations in an Aboriginal context.
Next, based on comprehensive research that brings together information from a variety of disciplines,
including history, anthropology, psychology, psychiatry, sociology and political science, the proposed
model of historic trauma transmission (HTT) and discussion on possible implications it may have on
Aboriginal communities in Canada, the general public and government institutions are presented. The
study concludes with a few words from Aboriginal Elders whose experiences, narratives, wisdom and
access to other spiritual planes and visions are the ultimate testimony of Aboriginal people’s resilience
and strength in their continuous battle for survival.
The argument is given that historic factors strongly influenced Aboriginal people’s locus of personal
and social control, engendered a sense of fatalism and reactivity to historical and social forces, and
adversely influenced their social relations. In the eyes of the non-Aboriginal population, Aboriginal
people became silent, powerless constructions of “otherness,” which is a representation bounded but
never relational. These complex processes, located between the inscriptions of marginality imposed on
Aboriginal people by the dominant culture and Aboriginal integrity translated into cultural propositions,
were never fully understood by Aboriginal people or non-Aboriginal societies.
This study brings to light the social consequences of the brutal colonization of the Americas that are
trivialized by many politicians in their official discourse of power, which maintains the marginality of
Aboriginal people and perpetuates the particularization of Aboriginal people’s terrible experiences. Most
Aboriginal people and most researchers who work with them agree that the “present” Aboriginal
communities are a direct legacy of their traumatic “past.” It appears that the “way” people remember
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