A Canadian Catastrophe: The Effect of Residential Schools on Aboriginal Parenting

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diagnostic criteria for PTSD (Corrado and Cohen 2003). These high rates of PTSD, directly attributed to the trauma experienced within residential schools, provide strong evidence for a link between PTSD and the Canadian residential school system. The prevalence of PTSD has a direct impact on the absence of effective parenting skills in the Aboriginal community, as it often influences behaviors such as alcohol abuse and spousal abuse, which in turn set negative precedents for children growing up. Often used as a coping mechanism to deal with PTSD, alcohol abuse throughout modern Aboriginal culture proves to be a major cause for concern. According to a report by Health Canada (2003), 79 percent of individuals in First Nations communities suffered from alcohol abuse, and 59 percent from drug abuse. Additionally, a study conducted by the National Native Addictions Partnership Foundation (2002) found deaths due to alcohol consumption among Aboriginal population to be 43.7 per 100,000, twice the rate of the general population (23.6 per 100,000). Staggering figures when compared to the overall population of Canada, the statistics indicated portray the extensive damage caused by residential schools. The phenomena of historical trauma and Residential School Syndrome are large contributors to the social and cultural epidemic of alcohol abuse in Native communities. With a strong correlation to PTSD, alcohol is also used also to cope with issues beyond that of mental illness, including economic and social hardships, which are not directly related to residential schools. Yet, even when not related to mental illness, alcohol abuse is still the result of interaction with European culture. Prior to the arrival of European colonists in North Ameri... ... middle of paper ... ...al departments actually reaches first nations” (Assembly of First Nations 2007:1), with 11 percent of funding being spent on INAC departmental overhead (Assembly of First Nations 2007). In order to improve the conditions of Aboriginal life, and subsequently improve the parenting abilities of Aboriginals, we must first address and repair the underlying psychological, emotional, and social problems within Native communities. This process of repair should be facilitated through the development of a long-term strategy, designed to increase government spending towards beneficial social and medical programs, with a primary focus on addressing the traumas inflicted by the residential school system. In the words of Lloyd Robertson (2006: 21), “Concomitantly, community development work needs to be done to mitigate the disastrous effects of the residential school experiment.”

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