Historic Trauma and Aboriginal Healing

Introduction
their past and interpret those events as individuals and as a people is what contributes to continuing
“dis-ease” in their communities. As yet, no one has successfully identified specific factors that set the
foundation for on-going and unresolved grief and trauma experienced by Aboriginal people.
This research specifies historical agents and details social processes that changed Aboriginal social and
cultural environments over centuries of oppression, at the same time recognizing the resilience of
Aboriginal people’s social and cultural knowledge, which is presently a vital and active component in
the process of defining and redefining Aboriginal identity. Only by naming and deconstructing historic
trauma and remembering the past, will Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people be able to free themselves
from the oppositional realms they occupy in existing dominant and resistant cultural structures.
Rod McCormick (1995/1996), who examined the facilitation of healing for First Nations people in
British Columbia, states that the goal of healing for Aboriginal people “is concerned with attaining and
maintaining balance between the four dimensions of the person: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual”
(McCormick, 1995/1996:164). He also adds that effective healing in Aboriginal understanding focuses
on inter-connectedness between family, community, culture and nature. Thirdly, “First Nations healing
requires the individual to transcend the ego rather than strengthen it” (McCormick, 1995/1996:164).
McCormick (1997) concludes that these three aspects: balance, inter-connectedness and intraconnectedness,
and transcendence are the most important means and ends of the healing process,
suggesting an interesting healing model he calls “healing through interdependence.” It is beyond the
scope of this study to outline specific healing modalities to be used in the Aboriginal context, as this
requires yet another extensive study. Brief references will be made to best healing practices throughout
this paper and will include a chapter on Implications for Healing. Nevertheless, it is acknowledged that
McCormick’s thesis of “balance, connectedness and transcendence” can (and should) be used as a starting
point in an exploration of possible healing strategies for Aboriginal people. Many existing Aboriginal
healing programs already employ the concept of inter-connectedness in their initiatives, using the
symbolism of the Medicine Wheel or the Healing Circle that integrate different elements of Aboriginal
philosophy of life. Just as the four elements (spiritual, emotional, physical and mental) in each person’s
life must work in unison for the balance to be achieved, all fragmented parts of Aboriginal people’s past,
present and future must be re-integrated again to facilitate healing on a communal level.
According to McGaa, “interdependence is at the center of all things” (1990:xv). With this concept of
interdependence of all elements in mind, the model of historic trauma proposes that, in order to
understand the present social conditions of Aboriginal people, one must examine how the various
dimensions of Aboriginal people’s lives became affected and changed during the process of colonization.
Colonization caused disintegration and fragmentation of Aboriginal reality:
The Government and Church were largely successful at separating First Nations people
from their culture, language, religion, families, communities, and land. First Nations
people have recognized the overwhelming need to be reconnected and to reclaim that
which was taken, and now are acting to reconnect and strengthen these bonds
(McCormick, 1997:178).
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