Pastoral Care with Children of War: A Community-Based Model of Trauma Healing in the Aftermath of Indonesia’s Religious Conflicts

Abstract

This essay on children and trauma places a community-based, activist model of pastoral care into conversation with contemporary trauma theory to argue for the necessity of contextual strategies of care for traumatized children. Based upon ethnographic research in Ambon City in the southern Moluccas, a group of islands in Indonesia where violent fighting between Christian and Muslim groups dominated the landscape from 1999 to 2002, the study explores the impact of continual trauma on children. Western models of care coming out of a mental health perspective that privilege narrating the trauma experience become problematic in contexts such as this one, where access to mental health is limited and cultural norms work against the disclosure of painful events. Operating from intercultural pastoral care principles of context-based care that relies on local wisdom, the essay offers the example of Pastor Jacky Maniputty's community-based, activist model of pastoral care with youth as engaging the fundamental tasks of trauma healing in a culturally coherent manner.Keywords Trauma . Intercultural pastoral care . Indonesian religious conflict . ChildrenWe do not have the words in our various Indonesian languages for what you call 'trauma'. We do have plenty of experiences to fit the word. We have some other words that are not quite the same. Perhaps it means that for us, things that are traumatic are somehow unsayable culturally. So, we borrow this word from English and incorporate it into our languages because these days we must have some way to speak about the condition in which we find ourselves at this point in our history. Our young people today are children of trauma, even those who were not yet born in the time of the worst violence.-Yuli, Ambon, Indonesia Pastoral Psychol

Reflections on Ministry amongst Children during the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…Identifying Individual Family Needs Mercer (2015) highlighted the need for contextual strategies of care for traumatized children. Consequently, against the backdrop of these macro-level impacts, there was a wide range of experiences at micro (individual family) level.…”

“…In this way the child's support system is prioritised realising that it plays an immense role within the child's lived experience. Despite children's greater dependency on adults meaning that they are more vulnerable to harm, both physically and psychologically (Mercer, 2015), Breed observed that children can easily be overlooked when ministering in a congregation (Breed, 2016, p.283). Our observations in each of the countries revealed that children were often overlooked during this phase, although there were inspiring exceptions to this.…”

Islands Education Studies and Challenges in Learning Science

“…In contrast, the sea concept is the development of education by sea by using ships or with a combination of land concepts and sea concepts in archipelagic education. (Alpha Amirrachman, 2014;Mercer, 2015) Some of the problems faced in education in Maluku are the lack of educators and education staff, the common welfare of teachers, the lack of facilities and infrastructure, the lack of equal opportunities for education, the education culture is still low and the geographical location based on islands which are obstacles to equal access to education that must be reached by sea transportation (Fenanlampir et al, 2019;Kempa et al, 2019;Rumahlatu et al, 2016). Based on the existing empirical data, the local government has made several efforts to improve the quality of education in Maluku, including increasing students' mathematical literacy from elementary to high school levels.…”

Processes and outcomes of a communalization of trauma approach: Vets & Friends community‐based support groups

“…Outside of the United States, descriptions of community healing efforts after widespread violence or conflict show that elements central to CoT (e.g., safety, trust, truth‐telling, and restoring connection to community) feature prominently in reconciliation or restorative justice approaches (Ngwenya, 2018). Further, communalizing trauma has been suggested as useful for different traumatized populations, including peacekeepers (Ray, 2009b), prisoners of war (Stein et al, 2015), and children impacted by conflict (Mercer, 2015). Its utility depends, in part, on how community‐driven and culturally consonant it is (Mercer, 2015; Schultz et al, 2016), how well it gives voice to experiences that are often ignored or marginalized, and how well traumatic experiences can be cognitively reframed for processing and sharing.…”

“…Further, communalizing trauma has been suggested as useful for different traumatized populations, including peacekeepers (Ray, 2009b), prisoners of war (Stein et al, 2015), and children impacted by conflict (Mercer, 2015). Its utility depends, in part, on how community‐driven and culturally consonant it is (Mercer, 2015; Schultz et al, 2016), how well it gives voice to experiences that are often ignored or marginalized, and how well traumatic experiences can be cognitively reframed for processing and sharing. Within the United States, communalizing approaches have been described by Native American and Latino communities (Brave Heart, 1998; Schultz et al, 2016; Silver & Wilson, 1988).…”