Historic Trauma and Aboriginal Healing

Definitions
This glossary of terms has been provided as a way of ensuring clarity throughout the document. Please
read through these definitions and refer to them as needed.
Aboriginal people or Aboriginal - includes Métis, Inuit and First Nations, regardless of where they
live in Canada and regardless of whether they are “registered” under the Indian Act of Canada.
Aetiology - cause, origin; all of the causes of a disease or abnormal condition.
Altruism - unselfish regard for, or devotion to, the welfare of others.
Asperity – rigor; severity; hardship.
Assimilation - the social process of absorbing one cultural group into another.
Binary - something made of or based on two things or parts.
Bubonic plague - a severe and often fatal disease caused by infection with the bacterium Yersinia pestis
(formerly Pasteurella pestis), transmitted to man by the bite of fleas, themselves usually infected by
biting infected rodents.
Colonial subjugation - the establishment of settlements in populated foreign lands through social
control by domination or by overcoming or subduing by force, whether physical or moral.
Colonization - the establishment of settlements.
Contagions - contagious diseases.
Deleterious - harmful, often in a subtle or unexpected way.
Eidetic - of visual imagery of almost photographic accuracy.
Egalitarian - favoring social equality: “a classless society.”
Endemic - anything resembling a disease.
Ethnographic - relating to the study and recording of human cultures.
Execrable - of very poor quality or condition.
Extirpate - to destroy completely; wipe out.
Hegemonic - preponderant influence or authority over others: domination.
Lakota Takini Network Inc. - a native non-profit collective of traditionalists, helping professionals
and service providers and is recognized for its research in historic trauma.
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