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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Chapter 2<br />
the Gr<strong>and</strong>mothers, the Mothers, the clans, <strong>and</strong> the people. At the end of the fifteenth<br />
century, Anglo-European time, the old world that the tribes, Nations, <strong>and</strong> Confederacies<br />
lived in began to be torn apart (Allen, 1986:194).<br />
A bond of relatedness exists in <strong>Aboriginal</strong> cultural traditions, which connects the natural environment<br />
<strong>and</strong> the <strong>Aboriginal</strong> system of social <strong>and</strong> cultural action <strong>and</strong> economic practice. Destruction of the<br />
“physical sphere” in the early period of colonization damaged this bond of relatedness. Unlike the<br />
dominant (western) traditions where the environment is linked to the social system primarily through<br />
its instrumental value, in Indigenous traditions, a complementary relationship holds between the<br />
l<strong>and</strong>scape <strong>and</strong> economic <strong>and</strong> social actions. This l<strong>and</strong>scape provides a physical manifestation of truth<br />
of the <strong>Aboriginal</strong> spiritual system <strong>and</strong> gives the system a sense of solidity, resilience <strong>and</strong> resistance to<br />
change. <strong>Aboriginal</strong> creation mythology established a bond of a shared life force between humans <strong>and</strong><br />
non-human species. This bond is a moral, social <strong>and</strong> psychological nexus connecting humans, animals<br />
<strong>and</strong> the l<strong>and</strong>scape. Contrary to the dominant western societal paradigm, <strong>Aboriginal</strong> social <strong>and</strong> economic<br />
realms do not stop with the human species. <strong>Aboriginal</strong> ritual <strong>and</strong> economic participation in the<br />
environment is intended as a form of control <strong>and</strong> what happened (<strong>and</strong> is happening) in the environment.<br />
There is also a personal commitment to the well-being of the <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people’s l<strong>and</strong>scape that, for<br />
them, has meaning beyond utility.<br />
In general, spirituality is defined as an attachment to all that concerns the life of the soul. Jacques<br />
Maritain, a Catholic philosopher, once said:<br />
A spiritual soul cannot be corrupted, since it possesses no matter; it cannot be<br />
disintegrated, since it has no substantial parts; it cannot lose its individual unity, since it<br />
is self-subsisting, nor its integral energy, since it contains within itself all the sources of<br />
its energies … [It] … cannot die. Once it exists, it cannot disappear; it will necessarily<br />
exist for ever, endure without end (1952:60).<br />
It is beyond the scope of this study to discuss why missionaries believed that they could change the<br />
spiritual soul of “the savages,” even though, according to their own belief system, it was eternal <strong>and</strong> selfsubstituting.<br />
The only answer would probably be that missionaries did not believe <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people<br />
had a soul at all. As soul-less beings, <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people were not aware of the Christian ultimate divine<br />
reality or of the eternal, which is infinitely other <strong>and</strong> greater than man, <strong>and</strong> they were in dire need of<br />
becoming enlightened. Enlightenment was achieved by imposing many strict prohibitions on the<br />
traditional ritual life of <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people. Those who converted were forbidden to practice any aspect<br />
of their traditions: “Converts were required to destroy their charms … <strong>and</strong> were forbidden to use<br />
dreams as guides to their actions. Because they could no longer consult with shamans about desires of<br />
the soul, Christians [Indians] were deprived of an important means for resolving personal frustrations<br />
within the context of a highly conformist society” (Trigger, 1985:256). <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people were not<br />
allowed to participate in public feasts <strong>and</strong> celebrations <strong>and</strong> could not take part in the network of economic<br />
reciprocity <strong>and</strong> redistribution. New converts were prohibited from contacting their “traditional” friends<br />
or even helping them when they were sick <strong>and</strong> traditional burial ceremonies were prohibited. Converts<br />
were encouraged to wear rosaries around their necks. Community after community became divided<br />
<strong>and</strong> segregated into Christians <strong>and</strong> traditionalists.<br />
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