The Treatment of Aboriginal People in Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach, and Constance Lindsay Skinner's Birthright

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Trauma, abuse, displacement, and feelings of alienation have, and is still plaguing the Aboriginal community. Author Eden Robinson and playwright Constance Lindsay Skinner address the displacement, mistreatment, and abuse the indigenous population has faced, and still faces, in Monkey Beach and Birthright. Both Eden Robinson's novel Monkey Beach, and playwright Constance Lindsay Skinner's Birthright deals with characters who are struggling with trauma and haunted with scars from the past. The authors detail these events and bring the reader into the “shoes” of the characters through characterization, imagery, dialogue, and through revealing intimate memories of the characters. These literary techniques enable the reader to see the parallel between the cyclical, ambiguous state of nature, and the ambiguity in humans and how there is a perpetuating, intergenerational cycle of violence caused by abuse and the mistreatment of the Aboriginal. Both Birthright and Monkey Beach show the injustices the Aboriginal community faced and still faces today. These injustices cause emotional, physical, and psychological scaring which eventually leads victims to become abusers and victimize others in the future. This victim-to-abuser cycle is noted in a study which showed that “there is positive correlation between a victim of sexual abuse and becoming a perpetrator.” (Glasser, 9) This causal effect is seen through Josh, who had been sexually abused in residential school. Josh's traumatic childhood resulted in the abused becoming the abuser when he raped his niece, Adelaine. An uncle is seen as someone who can be trusted, a member of the family; however, Josh ended up harming Adelaine. This mirrors the duality of nature in the no... ... middle of paper ... ... and your heart is bitter.” ( Skinner 26-27) This again shows the traumatic effects of residential schools and of cultural, psychological, and emotional upheaval caused by the intolerance and mistreatment of Aboriginals in Canada. Settlers not only displaced Aboriginal people from their land and their homes, but they also experienced emotional trauma and cultural displacement. Eden Robinson and Constance Lindsay Skinner depict the harrowing treatment of Indigenous people through intimate unveiling of memories and dialogue, allowing readers to connect and sympathize with the characters. It also shows the intergenerational damage of residential schools and injustices experienced, and continue to be experienced, by the Aboriginal population. Birthright and Monkey Beach show that past abuse and injustices can lead to a continually viscous cycle of violence and trauma.

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