Healing history? Aboriginal healing, historical trauma, and personal responsibility

Abstract

What can an exploration of contemporary Aboriginal healing programs such as those offered in Canadian prisons and urban clinics tell us about the importance of history in understanding social and psychological pathology, and more significantly the salience of the concept of "historical trauma"? The form of Aboriginal "healing" that has emerged in recent decades to become dominant in many parts of the country is itself a reflection of historical processes and efforts to ameliorate the consequences of what is today often termed "historical trauma." In other words, contemporary notions of "healing" and the social, cultural, medical, and psychological disruption and distress caused by colonialism and captured in the term "historical trauma" have coevolved in an interdependent manner. I also argue that there is a tension between the attribution of this distress to both specific (e.g., residential schools) and generalized (e.g., colonialism) historical factors, as evident in the "historical trauma" concept, and the prevailing emphasis in many healing programs to encourage the individual to take personal responsibility for their situation and avoid attributing blame to other factors. I conclude that "historical trauma" represents an idiom of distress that captures a variety of historical and contemporary phenomena and which provides a language for expressing distress that is gaining currency, at least among scholars, and that the contemporary Aboriginal healing movement represents an effort to deal with the absence or failure of both "traditional" Aboriginal healing and government-sponsored medical and psychological services to adequately deal with this distress of colonialism.

Reframing Narratives of Aboriginal Health Inequity

“…This history is often linked to current health inequities among Aboriginal communities through the trope of historical trauma (Adelson, 2005;Waldram, 2014). In the analysis of four Cree elder narratives, we demonstrate how experiences of social distress and individual suffering related to historical abuses are intertwined with powerful moments of resilience, resistance, and strategies for overall health and well-being.…”

“If You Fall Down, You Get Back Up”: Creating a Space for Testimony and Witnessing by Urban Indigenous Women and Girls

“…It is important to note that it is possible to address historical trauma even if the individual is not exhibiting signs of historical traumatic response. Treatment for historical trauma often includes strategies to engage in cultural continuity, decolonizing methodologies, and traditional healing practices (Auger, 2016;Denham, 2008;Duran, Duran, Yellow Horse Brave Heart, & Yellow Horse-Davis, 1998;Evans-Campbell, 2008;Waldram, 2014;Wesley-Esquimaux & Smolewski, 2004;Yellow Horse Brave Heart, 1998). The understanding is that, in order to treat both historical and psychological traumas, it is essential to legitimize post-colonial suffering and destigmatize people who face distress caused by historical trauma.…”

History, violence and collective memory: Implications for mental health in Ecuador

“…Thus, it refers to a particular language of distress which confronts colonial victimisation with individual agency and resilience (Waldram, 2014). This non-static conceptual approach prevents scholars and mental health professionals from making simplistic assumptions of inter-generational transmission of a trauma within nonwhite families, and pathologising their suffering (Maxwell, 2014).…”