For over 200 years Aborigines have endured a long history of suffering due to the adverse effects of western colonisation; in its attempt for cultural assimilation and to which has caused catastrophic consequences within individuals and the community as a whole. The extent and persistence of suppression inflicted upon the indigenous communities have severely disrupted the culture, which has not only made it susceptible to trauma, but can also trigger other catastrophic symptoms, which then lead to the transmission and intergenerational transmission of such behaviours or maladaptive coping strategies amongst its members. To this day, it is still evident that Aborigines continue to experience profound social problems caused by marginalisation with dominant society. In order to understand this, it is necessary to investigate the importance of culture and exactly what in their history has led them to where they are today, as well as, exploring the different theoretical approaches in regards to transmission, through the biological approaches in human development and approached in behavioural and learning theories, reflecting on the likelihood of how genetics or environmental factors can play in the role of transmission.
Introduction
In order to understand how the traumatic experiences of the past impact on current generations of indigenous peoples, it is crucial to understand the importance of culture and the nature of human relations and development, and precisely what in their history, has led them to their current breakdown. As Halloran (2004) suggested, culture is a shared repository of interrelated knowledge and practices that is maintained and transmitted by the ongoing activities and practices of participants, and it is ...
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...llow it to perpetuate within the current and successive generations of Indigenous Australians.
Works Cited
Halloran, M. J. (2004). Cultural Maintenance and Trauma in Indigenous Australia. 23rd Annual Australia and New Zealand Law and History Society Conference. Perth.
O'Loughlin, M. (2009). A psychoanalytic exploration of collective trauma among Indigenous Australians and a suggestion for intervention. Australasian Psychiatry: Bulletin Of Royal Australian And New Zealand College Of Psychiatrists, 17 Suppl 1S33-S36. Retrieved from MEDLINE database.
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Wesley-Esquimaux, C. C., & Smolewski, M. (2004). Historic Trauma and Aboriginal Healing. Ottawa: Aboriginal Healing Foundation.
Residential schools undoubtedly created detrimental inter-generational consequences. The dark legacy of residential schools has had enduring impact, reaching into each new generation, and has led to countless problems within Aboriginal families including: chemical dependence, a cycle of abuse in families, dysfunctional families, crime and incarceration, depression, grief, suicide, and cultural identity issues (McFarlan, 2000, p. 13). Therefore, the inter-generational consequence...
Kirmayer, Sehdev, Whitley, Dandeneau, & Isaac (2009), suggested that a culture-centered approach to resilience is better as a community process, rather than an individual struggle. In this article, the focus is on the Aboriginal people and resilience. The authors warned that resilience should not be used as an all-inclusive term to fix everything, but instead be used as a component of overall wellness in a community. A key strength of the wellness framework is that it is “culturally relative” and each person can define his or her pathway (Newman & Newman, 2012). The road to wellness and resilience is challenging due to the many factors influencing success. External influences can affect how an individual copes with certain situations and it can be detrimental if they have no external support. However, when excellent support is offered, it is more likely that an individual or community can effectively cope. Nevid & Rathus (2010) define acculturative stress as the feelings of tensions and anxiety that comes with trying to adapt to the dominant culture. This can lead to feelings of ambiguity in personal identity and can lead to further
Generations of native people in Canada have faced suffering and cultural loss as a result of European colonization of their land. Government legislation has impacted the lives of five generations of First Nations people and as a result the fifth generation (from 1980 to present) is working to recover from their crippled cultural identity (Deiter-McArthur 379-380). This current generation is living with the fallout of previous government policies and societal prejudices that linger from four generations previous. Unrepentant, Canada’s ‘Genocide’, and Saskatchewan’s Indian People – Five Generations highlight issues that negatively influence First Nations people. The fifth generation of native people struggle against tremendous adversity in regard to assimilation, integration, separation, and recovering their cultural identity with inadequate assistance from our great nation.
Definition: Mental health has become a pressing issue in Indigenous communities. Often, a combination of trauma, a lack of accessible health resources, substance abuse, violence, and socioeconomic situations lead to high rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidality in Indigenous Peoples. This crisis is especially apparent in Indigenous youth, where there is a growing suicide epidemic but little mental health support and resources are provided. The increase in stigmatized and untreated mental illness has continued as trauma and systemic injustices remain unaddressed. Indigenous groups, governmental parties, and health organizations are involved.
Bopp, J., & Bopp, M. 2007. Responding to sexual abuse: Developing a community-based sexual abuse response team in Aboriginal communities. Ottawa: Solicitor General of Canada, pp. 45-49
Native Americans have undergone a horrific past of genocide, discrimination, forced acculturation, miscommunication, and misunderstanding. They were frequently dehumanized and stripped of basic human rights. Treated as “savages” they were herded into areas of confinement and robbed of their language, culture, and way of life. In many instances of genocide, experts have noted a type of historical trauma that may be passed down through families, known as generational trauma. While the potential effects of this concept are not proven, the stories, images, and memories of thousands of Native Americans continue to be shared with their children, thus perpetuating, and never forgetting the pain and embarrassment that their people have experienced.
Genocide, assimilation, and segregation-- these are all forms of cultural and ethnic cleansing that we as Canadians do not necessarily associate with what it means to be a Canadian, rather they are terms that we associate with occurrences in distant, dangerous and abysmal places (Fleras, 2012; p. 10). However, these terms are evidently applicable to the treatment of Aboriginals during the time of European colonization of Canada. Genocide is considered to “be the most serious of punishable crimes under international law…” (Fleras, 2010; p. 11); unfortunately, genocide has been inflicted upon Aboriginals in numerous forms as they suffered a loss of cultural identity through European-colonization. Assimilation has also affected Aboriginals as through the use of residential schools, Aboriginal children were taken from their families and forced to learn the dominant white way of life and abandon their culture (Fleras, 2010; p.13). Segregation of Aboriginals has also occurred, as reserves are restricted purely for individuals with Indian citizenship, hence keeping Aboriginals separate from the dominant culture (Fleras, 2010; p. 15). There is a lack of awareness on the horrendous and disgusting treatment of the original Canadian settlers, Aboriginals, which can be partially attributed to a narrative that has helped create the image of what it means to be a Canadian, a narrative that has provided the belief that white Europeans were the first to settle on Canadian land and has painted a picture of white settlers struggling to survive on their discovered Canadian land. This narrative has been termed the ‘frontier narrative’, and it truly has shaped Aboriginals lives in Canada. This paper will provide first and foremost a clear definition o...
Aboriginal health is majorly determined by several social factors that are related to their cultural beliefs. Health professionals regularly find it difficult to provide health care to aboriginal people due to the cultural disparity that exists between the conventional and aboriginal cultures, predominantly with regard to systems of health belief (Carson, Dunbar, & Chenhall, 2007). The discrepancy between the aboriginal culture and typical Western customs seems to amplify the difficulties experienced in every cross-cultural setting of health service delivery (Selin & Shapiro, 2003). Most of the social determinants of the aboriginal health are due to their strict belief in superstition and divine intervention.
Ed. Shelagh Rogers, Mike DeGagné, Jonathan Dewar, and Glen Lowry. Ottawa, Ont.: Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 2006. Print.
In order to understand the impact of colonisation on Aboriginal health; it is important to recognize their worldview or set of beliefs on health (Tilburt, 2010). They practice a “holistic” approach unlike the Western Biomedical model where health is centred on biological functioning (Lock, 2007). According to this model the essence of being healthy relies on the mental, spiritual and social well-being rather than the absence of an illness (Hampton & Toombs, 2013). It is closely linked to spiritual and environmental factors; the heart of which is country, tradition and kinship. Land is a source of identity and spirituality for indigenous people (Hampton & Toombs, 2013). Kinship manages connection to land as well as ceremonial obligations and interpersonal relationships (Hampton & Toombs, 2013). For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders a healthy person consists of physical and spiritual elements. It’s evident that colonisation eroded the structures upon which Indige...
Some of the residential school students were so scarred from the way they were treated in the schools, that they even started putting the same abuse that they had received in the schools, onto their own children. The abuse has left the students with mental trauma and many of the students were unable to erase the memories of abuse from their minds. Many the survivors of the Canadian Residential Schools have been inflicting their children and spouses with physical abuse similar to the abuse that they had received previously in the Residential Schools. In an article talking about the victimization of aboriginals they stated, “Males who had experienced abuse as children were found to be at a significantly high risk to repeat the cycle of violence with future spouses” (Scrim as cited in McGillivray and Comaskey 1996). This sad cycle shows that even though the last Residential School closed in the late 1990’s, the experiences that students had during their time is still negatively affecting their lives today. Many of the former students of the Canadian Residential Schools have turned to substance abuse in hopes to try and cope with their struggling mental health. It is shocking to see that a school this harsh could have such long lasting impacts on its students. In an article related to helping people understand the trauma
Racism and social disadvantage being the by-products of Australian colonisation have become reality for Aboriginal people from the early beginnings as well as being prevalent to this day. There exists a complex and strong association between racism and Aboriginal poor health, assisting in the undermining of the emotional and social wellbeing of this Indigenous group. Racism has an adverse and insidious effect upon the psychological and physical health of the Aboriginal people, as it gnaws away on the mental state of the individual, having detrimental consequence upon the standard of acceptable health in today 's modern society. The effects of this discrimination become the catalyst towards the undermining of one 's self esteem which leads to detrimental stress levels, self-negativity and having the potential
Aboriginal Men’s Healing Centre (AMHC) is a 28 bed centre in a culturally appropriate environment to care for IA struggling with the impact of domestic violence, with former Indigenous perpetrators acting as mentors. This is one example of a step forward in breaking the disadvantage of IA .
...s a way of coping with bad memories and changes in culture (Reser, 1991). Many Indigenous are still being affected by the events which unfolded long ago. Alcohol is consumed by many who are known to have mental disorders. Depression is a major issue within the aboriginal population with many suffering with factors like grief, shame, worry, homesickness, and anger due to the colonization and the way it has changed their everyday life, culture and environment (Reser).
Indigenous Knowledge (IK) can be broadly defined as the knowledge and skills that an indigenous (local) community accumulates over generations of living in a particular environment. IK is unique to given cultures, localities and societies and is acquired through daily experience. It is embedded in community practices, institutions, relationships and rituals. Because IK is based on, and is deeply embedded in local experience and historic reality, it is therefore unique to that specific culture; it also plays an important role in defining the identity of the community. Similarly, since IK has developed over the centuries of experimentation on how to adapt to local conditions. That is Indigenous ways of knowing informs their ways of being. Accordingly IK is integrated and driven from multiple sources; traditional teachings, empirical observations and revelations handed down generations. Under IK, language, gestures and cultural codes are in harmony. Similarly, language, symbols and family structure are interrelated. For example, First Nation had a