There has been one more death far too soon, and one death is too many. This blog is written with respect for the Indigenous peoples of Canada and first peoples of other nations around the world that are experiencing continuing emotional trauma individually, within families, and within communities today as a result of long-term destructive government legislation and residential school systems meant to assimilate populations during the process of colonization. The emotional legacy of the residential school system is long and transgenerational. It was a system that helped to inspire the destruction caused by Apartheid in South Africa. Many still living today attended the schools. This is not ancient history. There are those living today who did not attend the schools personally, yet they experience the constant emotional fallout of the schools affecting their lives. It is time to address this insidious emotional inheritance that creates devastating outcomes in lives every day.
Resources
Resources about the residential schools of Canada may be found through the research series of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation of Canada at http://www.ahf.ca/publications/research-series .
You may investigate the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada website at http://www.trc.ca.
Another resource is my Master of Arts Major Research Paper completed in 2011 through Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia entitled Healing the Personal Wounds of Colonization: Utilizing Third Party Consultation to Transform Canada’s Post-Residential School Societal Conflict. The survey results from indigenous and non-indigenous individuals with long histories in bringing together the cultures are invaluable. It can be found online at academia.edu at: https://www.academia.edu/7208215/Healing_the_personal_wounds_of_colonization_Utilizing_third_party_consultation to_transform_Canadas_post-residential_school_societal_conflict
Each of these journeys is but one step in the process of healing. At the present time, the wound is no longer hidden from view. The wound is open now, thanks to the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and many other committed individuals, and it needs your attention to initiate healing.
Systemic Impact
The immediate emotional and environmental impact of the Indian Residential School System (IRSS) and other Canadian legislation was systemic across hundreds of communities. The emotional trauma was imprinted deeply into the cells of the body of everyone involved. Anything I have blogged about victims and perpetrators and radical inclusion is important here.
https://www.peacefulpossibilities.ca/family-constellations-radical-inclusion-1/
Emotional wounding that occurs systemically in families finds healing systemically. What the great great great grandparents, great great grandparents, and great grandparents felt emotionally and suppressed during the experience, what the parents felt emotionally and suppressed, and what the current generation feels emotionally and is suppressing is flowing epigenetically and unconsciously downward to the children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and future generations. This impact stretches beyond seven generations. It is the responsibility of each living member of society to make an intentional conscious decision to end the destructive emotional legacy of these schools. There are no exceptions.
Let me draw from the 2005 manual created by Deborah Chansonneuve called Reclaiming Connections: Understanding residential school trauma among Indigenous people (Ottawa, ON: downloadable through the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, pp 46-47).
This list reveals some of the impacts of residential schools at the individual level:
Loss of culture, language, spirituality, pride in culture
Loss of self-esteem
Loss of confidence
Lack of family nurturing
Humiliation, shame, abandonment
Communication barriers
Inability to express affection
Devaluation of women
This list reveals some of the impacts of residential schools at the family level:
Inconsistent or extreme expressions of love
Lack of family affection for generations
Inability to show affection through hugs
Lack of communication in family
Loss of bonding for siblings
Children taken by Children’s Aid Society
Emotion abuse
Patterns of traumatic bonding
Deep feelings of remorse
Silence and shame from abuse repeated in home
Using gifts and material things to soothe wounds in the family
Information about Indian Residential School experience not passed to children because of abuse
Lateral violence, anger, jealousy, resentment, and gossip against each other
This list reveals some of the impacts of residential schools on whole communities:
High rates of suicide and family violence
Lack of traditional skills and role models
Unhealthy living conditions
Feelings of isolation within the community
Addictive and self-destructive behaviours
Substance abuse
Sexual abuse
Sex trade
Gambling or violence
Ongoing power and control issues
Inability to face community abuse and dysfunction
Racism, racial scaling, blood quantum
Lack of self-sufficiency and sustainability
Spiritual and religious splits in the community
Problems from reserves follow to urban communities
Strong desire to reclaim cultural and spiritual identity
Community comes together during crises but cannot sustain it with positive energy at other times
The History
Young children four or five years old were forcibly torn from the hands of their parents and grandparents and sent to schools, frequently great distances from the family home and community. These actions were legislated and enforced by the Government of Canada. The parents had no choice but to give up their children to the system. When the children were gone, the life force energy of the communities was gone. The whole reason for being parents and grandparents was gone. Intergenerational organization of communities was severely disrupted. Understanding self-identity was gone. Those left behind frequently lost their purpose for being and living. Within the communities, addictive behaviours ensued with products generally supplied by the colonizers. Addictions were used to escape the pain felt within. The grandparents had no one to share their love, care, culture, and stories with, and the parents lost their capacity to parent effectively without their children present. There was no one to parent.
In the schools, the children experienced alienation; loneliness; fear; separation from siblings, friends, and family; an aggressive assault on identity; foreign ways and foods; violence; abuse; spiritual annihilation; cultural annihilation; disease; and death. Some managed to have kind caregivers and the impact was less severe, however, cultural genocide was the intention and that cannot be denied. All Canadians were directly or indirectly impacted by the implementation of cultural genocide on the First Peoples.
Let me provide the legal definition of genocide from the Office of the United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide (OSAPG):
“Genocide is defined in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.””
To read the entire document: un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/…/osapg_analysis_framework.pdf
The Experience of the Young Child
To give an example of the intensity of fear that was experienced by a young child, picture the following: You are raised in the northern territories of Canada and one day a large strange looking bird-like contraption soars through the air and then it lands on the water near your home. It glides ominously along the surface of the water toward your settlement. Some strange looking people with pasty white skin, hairy faces, and strange clothing get out of the contraption and beckon to your parents. Your parents are told that you and your brother and sisters must get in the flying contraption and go to school a thousand miles away to the south. An education is good for the children. There is no option. You must go to school or else your parents will be punished by the new government of the land. Slowly… your mother packs a small hide bag with clothing and possessions for you, your brother, and your two sisters. She tucks in a beautiful feather to help you remember her. Tears run down her cheeks. Your parents give you a brief hug and then you are lead away by this stranger toward the flying machine.
Your mother and father are weeping and they are telling you to be strong. They are telling you that you will see one another again someday. With fear you do as you are told. You tremble uncontrollably as you step toward the strange bird. You, your little brother, and two older sisters hold hands as you step toward the monsterous bird. You are afraid of being swallowed up. You step inside and close your eyes. After a moment you open your eyes and realize you are still alive. Your heart is pounding. You feel your body shake with fear as this great bird begins to rumble and roar. You have never been anywhere without your mother and father. You have never left your settlement except to go out on the water to help your father fish. As the bird takes to the air, you look back at your mother and father and they look so small and sad.
You don’t realize it at the time, but the next time you will see your mother, father, and your home again is eight years later. By then your grandparents will no longer be living. You will have a great amount of emotional pain suppressed inside your body from all that you have experienced. When you arrive home and look upon the faces of the loving parents you left behind, you connect with that thread of love you hold in the recesses of your memory that kept you alive and it tugs at your heart string with joy and sadness for the time that has passed … for your mother and father look so much older than you remember them.
There will be another blog post to continue sharing about the legacy of the residential schools on individuals, families, and communities.
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