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 />
could stop the w<strong>and</strong>erings of the Savages, <strong>and</strong> give authority to one of them to rule the others, we<br />
would see them converted <strong>and</strong> civilized in a short time” (Leacock, 1906:27 as cited in Allen, 1986:39).<br />
Second, he advocated the institution of punishment: “How could they underst<strong>and</strong> tyranny <strong>and</strong> respect<br />
it unless they wielded it upon each other <strong>and</strong> experienced it at each other’s h<strong>and</strong>s? He was most<br />
distressed that the “Savages”, as he termed them, thought physical abuse a terrible crime” (Allen, 1986:39).<br />
Third, he believed that <strong>Aboriginal</strong> children should be taken from their families <strong>and</strong> placed in Jesuit-run<br />
institutions, located far from the children’s homes: “The Savages prevent their [children’s] instruction;<br />
they will not tolerate the chastisement of their children, whatever they may do, they permit only a<br />
simple reprim<strong>and</strong>” (Leacock, 1906:28 as cited in Allen, 1986:39). As Allen observes, “what he had in<br />
mind was more along the lines of torture, imprisonment, battering, neglect, <strong>and</strong> psychological torment<br />
– the educational methods to which Indian children in government <strong>and</strong> mission schools would be<br />
subjected for some time after Conquest was accomplished” (1986:39).<br />
Lastly, Father LeJeune wanted to introduce a new social structure in which <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people would<br />
adhere to the rules of patriarchal institutions of male dominance <strong>and</strong> female submission. Following<br />
instructions of his Church, Father LeJeune taught that a sacrament of marriage binds a man who has all<br />
the authority <strong>and</strong> his obedient wife for life. Divorce would not be allowed under any circumstances if<br />
the marriage had been consummated. Birth control was absolutely forbidden <strong>and</strong> birth prevention was<br />
to be considered a grave sin. Father LeJeune was not alone in his quest to civilize Indigenous people.<br />
All <strong>Aboriginal</strong> communities across the Americas <strong>and</strong> in the Pacific region met “their Father LeJeune” at<br />
one point or another in their life, who, like all other missionaries, brought the same message: replace “a<br />
peaceful, non-punitive, non-authoritarian social system wherein women wield power by making social<br />
life easy <strong>and</strong> gentle with one based on child terrorization, male dominance, <strong>and</strong> submission of women<br />
to male authority” (Allen, 1986:40-41). Often, the missionaries succeeded in altering <strong>Aboriginal</strong><br />
behavioural patterns. Trigger says that in 1648: “A Christian woman who lived in Ossossane is reported<br />
to have beaten her four-year-old son, a form of behaviour hitherto not reported among the Huron’s <strong>and</strong><br />
one that they would have regarded as disgusting <strong>and</strong> inhumane. The Jesuits, who believed that the<br />
Huron’s had to acquire a new sense of discipline in order to be good Christians, heartily approved of her<br />
action” (1985:267).<br />
When <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people were forced to convert to Christianity <strong>and</strong> transform their morality to adhere<br />
to Christian ethics, they were also forced to transform their social self concurrently with a transformation<br />
of their basic meaning system. A transformation of social self changes the sense of who people are <strong>and</strong><br />
how they belong to the social situation. New moral norms became a defining factor for the appropriate<br />
gender behaviour of men <strong>and</strong> women. New religion shaped norms pertaining to sexual behaviour <strong>and</strong><br />
it influenced norms of dress, physical activities, entertainment <strong>and</strong> rituals. New religion also legitimated<br />
gender distinction in work roles, home responsibilities, child care obligations, education, marriage<br />
commitments, political duties <strong>and</strong> legal status. Women were to become subordinate to men, according<br />
to Saint Paul’s view of the proper place of women:<br />
Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. But I permit not a woman to teach,<br />
nor to have dominion over men but to be in quietness. For Adam was first formed, then<br />
Eve; <strong>and</strong> Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled hath fallen into<br />
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