Proposal on Indigenous Trauma and Resilience

Indigenous communities worldwide have been victims of colonialism and cultural genocide. This genocide was due to the forceful abandoning of the indigenous way of life in favor of the dominant white culture. In the 21st century, the effects of such cultural genocide are still being felt. In Canada, the US and Australia, indigenous communities were forced into residential school programs to assimilate into the settler culture. This forced assimilation caused negative effects in Canada, lasting trauma for generations (Niezen 3). This study analyzed three novels: They Called me Number one by Bev Sellars, Five Little Indians by Michelle Good, and Broken Circle by Theodore Fontaine. These novels chart the anguish, and trauma first nation people underwent in residential schools (Scott 2). The paper argues that narration is a survival mechanism indigenous people use to reclaim their voice and retell their history. Through texts such as these, the indigenous people resist the dominant community.

General Idea

Indigenous communities continue to face trauma decades after forced assimilation ended. In this paper, I will demonstrate how these residential schools remain to harm Indigenous peoples in Canada decades after they were abolished. According to Elias et al. (2012), "it was a circle of trauma, with some survivors reporting abuse, suicide, and other forms of behavior as a result of their ordeal" (p.1561). The "Indian Act" passed into law the assimilation system, where children from indigenous families were separated and placed in church-organized residential schools to damage their cultures and compel the Indigenous people to assimilate with the dominant culture. There are numerous accounts of the horrific acts that Indigenous people have been forced to witness while participating in these schools, events that have a lasting effect on them to this day. Three novels: They Called me Number one by Bev Sellars, Five Little Indians by Michelle Good, and Broken Circle by Theodore Fontaine, tell stories of children's experiences in residential schools where they were not allowed to practice their culture. Their form of storytelling is a way of claiming their voice which colonial education had taken away, thus resisting their subjectivity. Storytelling is also healing as it returns them to what was lost.

Context

This study will examine the intergenerational trauma that first nations face due to colonial strategies of integration into the dominant white culture. Such efforts to eliminate traditional had adverse psychological effects on the children and their families. As a result of abandoning indigenous culture, many aboriginal people have ended up with diseases caused by poor diet. The study considers the following research questions: How did the residential school negatively affect children from indigenous communities? How do the indigenous people cope with intergenerational trauma? What are the coping mechanisms people employ to overcome such trauma?

Research Methods

The research method was a textual analysis of three novels. The primary sources included novels written by indigenous writers, most of whom were victims of the Canadian Residential School system. In addition, the paper does a literature review of secondary sources on the topic of trauma and resilience of indigenous communities. A search was done of articles on various databases in the library such as Jstor, project muse, ProQuest and Google scholar. Keywords such as first nations in Canada and residential schools were used to narrow the search. Furthermore, the search considered articles published most recently from 2018 to 2022.

In reading the three novels, I invoke Caruth’s theory of trauma, where the texts present individuals whose trauma transcends their experience at Residential Schools. Trauma, she argues, is the traumatic event, as well as the “unbearable nature of having survived it”(Caruth 7). Following Caruth, I regard the narrating trauma as an attestation of its impact throughout the life of survivors.

Findings

The texts provide a reading of aboriginal people's trauma in residential schools. While students were enlisted, the style of the Canadian system of residential schools motivated and allowed infractions of children's and adults' rights (Robinson 88). They continued using this trauma, sexual violence, and physical abuse pattern in Canadian schools. As noted by Frank Miroux, indigenous people experience ongoing dehumanization as a result of ethnic loss (196). The book demonstrates the start of introducing indigenous Australians to foreign features like colonialist schooling. Prolonged colonial influence resulted in abandoning indigenous methods of life, including providing food by fishing and hunting.

The readings conclude that colonial residential school was a method of exerting imperialism that was never completed. The purpose of the schools was to turn indigenous people from their culture, and this assimilation was a cause of trauma for them (Martin 151). The persistence of this trauma following the anxiety and loss of culture persists today, meaning that settler colonialism was never complete. Instead, members of indigenous communities seek to break from this trauma by retelling their narratives (Robinson 89).

Justification for Research

The research links the texts to trauma studies since the residential schools were traumatic to first nations. In this age where there is talk of repatriations, one needs to look at the psychological effects of residential schools and how such initiates continue to affect aboriginals. The culture, value systems, and traditions of Native Americans have been significantly and permanently changed due to integration efforts and destruction. Individual lives have been irrevocably altered as a result of this catastrophe. Native Canadians were purposefully targeted when they were young to sterilize and indoctrinate them into rejecting their heritage to promote racial and cultural integration. Studying texts that tell such stories in a new light presents a new perspective in indigenous studies, where silenced voices are heard.

There is also a need to have a new perspective on trauma studies, one that is informed by indigenous perspectives. The cultural points inform Indigenous points of view of the cultures (Hill et al. 39). Accordingly, tools of western e3pistemology perpetuate western imperialism; thus, they cannot be used to examine indigenous knowledge. It, therefore, is imperative to use a culturally competent approach. The novels this papers analyze present a more robust and culturally competent look at events in aboriginal culture since members write them of the target culture. Most of the literature about aboriginals is written by assimilated indigenous people, thus full of acculturation of the dominant American culture (Hill et al. 40). Reading texts such as They Called me Number One. Therefore provides a reading of a culture devoid of western influence. Writing according to Caruth, is a way to confront trauma by the oppressed (10).

Another justification for this study is that social workers need to understand trauma, especially from the indigenous point of view (Green 215). Since social workers work with disenfranchised indigenous communities, it is imperative to understand such communities' trauma from their perspective. Thus, studies such as the present one would provide insight into the level of trauma they go through. Social workers must also recognize that trauma leads to a "drain of resources for the victims. Therefore, studying trauma narratives can give social workers the knowledge they need to help victims.

The fourth justification is that a study of intergenerational trauma prepares social workers to deal with a diverse number of families and individuals affected by trauma across cultures (Middelton-Moz et al. 1). There are many people affected by colonial trauma across the globe; therefore a social worker needs culturally competent skills to help them. Indeed, indigenous people worldwide suffer from "collective trauma" imposed through systematic colonialism (ibid.). A social worker thus needs to understand trauma narratives when dealing with diverse clients. Thus social work based on indigenous experience is necessary for any worker dealing with indigenous communities.

Finally, to understand the overt and implicit bias one is prone to subject to first nation members, one needs to study trauma from an indigenous perspective. First nation people face discrimination which can be traumatic, and this is often subtle or unnoticed (Fast 126). Fast argues that there are inherent disparities between non-indigenous members and indigenous members of society; thus, "a policy change" is necessary to address such disparities (127). Such disparities become visible when highlighted by members of indigenous communities. A study of narratives from an indigenous experience thus can be used to effect policy change that would lessen their trauma. For example, in Canada, the indigenous people were forced into assimilation by the colonialists who believed they were civilizing them. However, such strategies caused much intergenerational trauma that still affects them to date. Studies such as this one provide a view into this hitherto unacknowledged trauma.

Conclusion

Intergenerational trauma and resilience of indigenous communities is a subject that deserves much examination. However, there is little knowledge of its magnitude because dominant cultures have silenced indigenous voices. For a long time, indigenous writers were ignored, and their work did not merit many studies. However, studying such works could work as a tessera to the mosaic of indigenous studies by revealing their trauma. Indigenous writers present trauma in ways that the dominant culture cannot. Therefore they provide a new way of addressing such trauma through the change in social policies.