Historic Trauma and Aboriginal Healing

Chapter 2
Hurons” (Trigger, 1985:255). It was not long before the missionaries achieved their goal in establishing
Aboriginal people in a position of spiritual dependence. Norms became open. The old regulations no
longer held, new ones had not yet been crystallized. The situation of crisis in the group meaning and
order is well described by Durkheim’s concept of anomie (which means “without order”). According to
Durkheim (1951), “anomie” means a crisis in the moral order of a social group. Spiritual beliefs function
as a protection from anomie. When the spiritual beliefs of Aboriginal people were discredited, anomie
(already experienced because of epidemics and loss of economic independence) grew, while crisis in
cultural meaning deepened. Meaning is fundamental to a perceived sense of order as, without it, there
is chaos. According to Berger, chaos is the opposite of sacred: “The sacred cosmos, which transcends
and includes man in its’ ordering of reality, thus provides man’s ultimate shield against the terror of
anomy” (1967:27). With destruction of their religious and cultural beliefs, there was nothing to shield
Aboriginal people from further disintegration. Anomie entered their social sphere.
Middle Period - Cultural Dispossession - Social Area of Impact
If theodicies were all the missionaries brought, the effects of the introduction of the new system of
belief would probably not be as disastrous in a social sense as they unfortunately were. However,
Christians brought with them The Book, their sacred testament to the existence of the Supreme Being,
which prescribed proper and improper conduct rules, a new ethical system of behaviour and thought,
and a new system of punishment for behavioural and moral infractions. The missionaries brought the
word about sin and salvation, heaven and hell, and the strict belief in the superiority of their religion.
The “word of God” changed Aboriginal cultural mores and social structures. In the socio-cultural
world where there was a strong sense of communal responsibility for the deeds and misdeeds of people,
the missionaries brought ideas that morality lies beyond the circle of interdependence and depends
upon an individual, not a group.
The community was the main vehicle for social cohesion in Aboriginal societies prior to contact. No
one was left alone or beyond the circle of communal identification and affiliation. When a crisis arose,
all community members were responsible for its resolution. This shared responsibility was, in a sense,
a psychological shield protecting members of a society from helplessness and demoralization. The
community worked to nurture its members and to create accepting, genuine and emphatic interpersonal
relations. It was a means for social self-actualization understood as a shared social need for fulfillment
and growth. People could develop their self-concept. Instead of waiting for individuals to break down,
the community was there to intervene ahead of time to offer nurturing support systems and teach
culturally appropriate coping skills. On the other hand, both Protestants and Roman Catholics agreed
that nothing could be substituted for personal responsibility for sin and salvation, for life on earth and
for rewards or punishments in the after-life. The notion of individual responsibility for one’s life was to
become a substitute for communal moral imperatives and obligations. It isolated people from traditional
patterns of community identification and left them alone to face the uncertainties of new life. It also
assigned Aboriginal people the responsibility (and blame) for their own social condition.
Said (1994) states that the manifestation of colonialism is through the configurations of power. The
political culture of colonial rulers operated within the frames of conquest, exploitation and repression
to break existing social patterns and reassemble them according to European standards. Citizenship
was to replace kinship; and institutions, law and bureaucracy substituted for face-to-face communal
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