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 />
transgression; [<strong>and</strong> became a transgressor;] but she shall be saved through the<br />
childbearing, if they continue in faith <strong>and</strong> love <strong>and</strong> sanctification, with sobriety (1<br />
Timothy 2:11-15, ASV).<br />
Many contemporary <strong>Aboriginal</strong> thinkers are convinced that, historically, the destruction of the social<br />
sphere began with a rearrangement of gender roles in <strong>Aboriginal</strong> societies <strong>and</strong> the devaluation of women.<br />
Traditionally, in many Indigenous societies around the world, women, together with men, were the<br />
repositories of cultural knowledge, responsible for h<strong>and</strong>ing down tribal law <strong>and</strong> custom. They were one<br />
of the forces that made possible the stability <strong>and</strong> continuity of life. <strong>Aboriginal</strong> women traditionally<br />
shared with men a common religious heritage based on their relationship with nature. Women, as well<br />
as men, were linked without discrimination to the same founding ancestors. Social benefits, as well as<br />
social responsibilities, were, in principle, the same for both sexes. Those societies, in which the centrality<br />
of women to social well-being of the entire community was never questioned, were also characterized<br />
by an equal distribution of goods with the welfare of children <strong>and</strong> elders of paramount importance.<br />
According to Allen:<br />
Christian missionaries, like their secular counterparts, could not tolerate peoples who<br />
allowed women to occupy prominent positions <strong>and</strong> decision-making capacity at every<br />
level of society … The colonizers saw (<strong>and</strong> rightly) that as long as women held<br />
unquestioned power … attempts at total conquest of the continents were bound to fail.<br />
In the centuries since the first attempts at colonization in the early 1500s, the invaders<br />
have exerted every effort to remove Indian women from every position of authority …<br />
<strong>and</strong> to ensure that no American <strong>and</strong> few American Indians would remember that<br />
gynocracy was the primary social order of Indian America prior to 1800 (1986:3).<br />
When all the compartments of a social structure become damaged, a society cannot exist anymore; it<br />
loses its social self, which is a group’s cognitive, psychological, <strong>and</strong> emotional definition <strong>and</strong> underst<strong>and</strong>ing<br />
of themselves as social beings. It includes people knowing where they begin <strong>and</strong> where they end in a<br />
social <strong>and</strong> cultural environment, what aspects of the cultural world are parts of the social self <strong>and</strong> what<br />
aspects are parts of others. It encompasses self-underst<strong>and</strong>ing of the group’s capabilities <strong>and</strong> limitations,<br />
strengths <strong>and</strong> weaknesses, emotions <strong>and</strong> cognitions, <strong>and</strong> beliefs <strong>and</strong> disbeliefs. On an individual level,<br />
the social self is acquired through a process of socialization. However, this process becomes disrupted<br />
<strong>and</strong> sometimes impossible when the socializing agents (parents, teachers, shamans) manifest a profound<br />
sense of social worthlessness <strong>and</strong> inadequacy, <strong>and</strong> when the social norms become discredited. According<br />
to Sotomayor:<br />
The self-concept can suffer irreparable damage if the socialization process prevents<br />
significant <strong>and</strong> familiar symbols to be present <strong>and</strong> reinforced at various levels of<br />
experience. The sense of belonging, crucial in the development of the self-concept,<br />
becomes blurred if one’s language, cultural patterns, <strong>and</strong> ethnic experiences are not<br />
reflected <strong>and</strong> supported, but rather given a negative connotation in the environment (as<br />
cited in Bloom, 1980:51).<br />
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