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 3<br />
<strong>and</strong> memory on to next generations, <strong>and</strong> who is best able to shift the emphasis on knowledge from a<br />
traditional to an everyday canon of narratives. Narrations of the tragic past, memories internalized to<br />
the point of silenced voices that still resonate in people’s collective (non-) remembering of the tragic<br />
past <strong>and</strong> people’s relationships to the past, become the groundwork for future discussions <strong>and</strong> negotiations.<br />
There is also an underlying conflict between <strong>Aboriginal</strong> <strong>and</strong> non-<strong>Aboriginal</strong> people over who will have<br />
the authority to link memory, experience, practice <strong>and</strong> meaning for <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people <strong>and</strong>, thus, produce<br />
value, power <strong>and</strong> authority for the self <strong>and</strong> social group in today’s world.<br />
In this climate of revival <strong>and</strong> change, it is vitally important to underst<strong>and</strong> the mechanisms by which<br />
practice (<strong>Aboriginal</strong> people’s lives, today <strong>and</strong> in the past) <strong>and</strong> identities (how <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people interpret<br />
themselves <strong>and</strong> their positions in the world outside their communities) are linked with past events <strong>and</strong><br />
past experiences. This underst<strong>and</strong>ing is far more important to the healing process necessary for <strong>Aboriginal</strong><br />
people to regain lost social <strong>and</strong> cultural selves than just finding a h<strong>and</strong>y (albeit empty <strong>and</strong> dry) definition<br />
for the underlying fabric of these identities <strong>and</strong> practices used when dealing with their non-<strong>Aboriginal</strong><br />
counterparts.<br />
It is also necessary to pay close attention to the dialogical <strong>and</strong> contested nature, value <strong>and</strong> meaning of<br />
<strong>Aboriginal</strong> action. Disputes people have over the meaning of events that occurred in the past have very<br />
different political <strong>and</strong> sociological consequences when held within <strong>and</strong> outside their communities.<br />
Non-<strong>Aboriginal</strong> people are mostly unaware of the impact of the history of colonization on contemporary<br />
<strong>Aboriginal</strong> lives. Disputes that <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people have over these issues do not often resonate outside<br />
their communities. Unfortunately, except for the controversial re-enactment of Riel’s trial on CBC in<br />
the fall of 2002 <strong>and</strong> the highly publicized residential school issue over the past decade, <strong>Aboriginal</strong><br />
people’s past <strong>and</strong> present do not enter into the non-<strong>Aboriginal</strong> people’s social conscience. Meanwhile,<br />
it is impossible to discuss <strong>Aboriginal</strong> cultural <strong>and</strong> social contemporary identity without considering the<br />
impact of historic trauma on many generations of <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people. This fact has a sobering effect on<br />
the sometimes overly-romanticized view of <strong>Aboriginal</strong> placement in the dominant culture that still<br />
exists in popular media. For the healing process to be complete, one must adopt a method of strategically<br />
essentializing the past of <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people. Even though the historical body of knowledge about the<br />
effects of historic trauma on <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people is constantly negotiated by both <strong>Aboriginal</strong> <strong>and</strong> non-<br />
<strong>Aboriginal</strong> people, <strong>and</strong> its political context, social context is recognized as critically influencing what<br />
part of that knowledge is to be revealed <strong>and</strong> the actual body of historical knowledge itself must not be<br />
altered by political, social context or climate. Those negotiations of what can or cannot be told are<br />
often silenced in the company of non-<strong>Aboriginal</strong> people for various reasons. Also, the <strong>Aboriginal</strong><br />
cultural organization of knowledge is itself on trial; people ask themselves when <strong>and</strong> where does one<br />
begin to look for the existing “past” in the multiple conceptions <strong>and</strong> structures of history.<br />
Although <strong>Aboriginal</strong> traditions are constantly gaining stability <strong>and</strong> solidity today, one must remember<br />
that <strong>Aboriginal</strong> people all over North America live under a Western gaze: how they act is apprehended<br />
by a Western political-economic framework <strong>and</strong> is assessed by Western models of productivity. <strong>Aboriginal</strong><br />
people need tools to inscribe a new relationship between themselves <strong>and</strong> the dominant culture <strong>and</strong> to<br />
create new <strong>and</strong> renewed links between themselves <strong>and</strong> their immediate world(s). There will be changes<br />
in <strong>Aboriginal</strong> social <strong>and</strong> cultural structures.<br />
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