Descendants of Residential School Survivors - The Best Approach for Healing

Sunset Dancers

The history of the Indian residential school system is infamous for the gross neglect and abuse of Aboriginal children.  The residential schools were an attempt to erode the existence of Aboriginal families and communities.  This objective has impacted not just on the residential school survivors but also their descendants.  The goal of the federal government was to assimilate Aboriginal people into Canadian society (Funk-Unrau, Snyder, 2007).  According to Duncan Campbell Scott, the main architect of Indian residential school policy, “Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic, and there is no Indian question and no Indian Department… I want to get rid of the Indian problem” (Titley, 1986).

Federal government assimilationist policy, in the form of the Indian Residential school system removed the children, the youth and the adolescents, severely disrupting the Aboriginal family and affecting its balance (Funk-Unrau & Synder, 2007).  Those children were removed from loving, caring and nurturing environments, and were placed in institutions.  Instead of being taught their native language, culture, and traditions, the children were taught domestic skills and under many circumstances were subjected to neglect, abuse, rape and even torture.  Funk-Unrau and Synder state (2007) “as devastating as all this was, perhaps the most extreme form of abuse was the deliberate attempt to tear young, impressionable students away from their families and communities and indoctrinate them into a language, a worldview, and a culture completely alien to their home experience.”

The impacts have been felt and have been passed on to the descendants of survivors today.  This not only impacted those who attended the residential schools but also affected Aboriginal people for the generations that followed.  As the residential school survivors became parents, they lacked the proper parenting skills that they would have been taught had they remained at home (Anisman, Bomby& Matheson, 2011).  These new parents passed on what they learned at the residential schools –anger, hatred, pain, abuse and neglect.  The children of these survivors then grew up learning from their parents’ dysfunctional ways believing them to be normal and acceptable.  Anisman, et al (2011) concludes “these experiences disrupted the transmission of culture from one generation to the next and undermined parenting skills and the capacity to provide a healthy environment for their children.” These children of survivors then may have gone on to residential schools themselves, but if not, they were still the products of a dysfunctional upbringing – a life cycle out of balance (Anisman, Bombay & Matheson, 2011).

          We know from our course that a Liberal ideological approach to social reform comes in the form of providing services and programs for individuals in order to get one back in balance, but does not change the nature of the problem (or reach the root cause of social problems).  Liberals with their institutional model see individuals rather than social groups or communities and do not seek to change society but assist the individual to be able to cope.  This Band-Aid solution to social problems will not be enough for Aboriginal people.  Healing of our people will only come when root causes of social issues are addressed.

 Since the Residential schools continue to affect us today, we, the descendants must look to healing based on our Aboriginal traditions.  Michael DeGagne (2007) states that “trauma experienced repeatedly over generations by aboriginal people reverberates through tight-knit community networks and has laid down layers of psychic pain and community disruption.  Healing methods that touch both individuals and communities are required” (DeGagne, 2007).  I feel that when social problems are addressed, such as addiction for example, simply treating the issue of addiction in individuals will not heal Anishinaabe people.  The underlying causes of such social conditions must be addressed by looking at the individual within their community and healing the deep roots of issues.  Some people may not even know how the residential school system has affected them.  In Aboriginal treatment centres the first step to healing for those with addictions is to learn about residential school and the intergenerational trauma.  My belief is the best approach for healing Aboriginal people experiencing the intergenerational trauma is a holistic, Indigenous approach based on the Medicine Wheel. 

Lisa
 

Resources:

Anisman, H., Bombay, A., & Matheson, K. (2011). The impact of stressor on second generation indian residential school survivors. Transcultural Psychiatry, 48(4), 368-370. doi: 10.1177/1363461511410240

Degagne, M. (2007). Toward and Aboriginal Paradigm of Healing: Addressing the Legacy of Residential Schools. Australasian Psychiatry, 15(Supplement), 49. doi: 10.1080/10398560701701114

Funk-Unrau, N., & Snyder, A. (2007). Indian Residential School Survivors and State-Designed ADR: A Strategy for Co-optation. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 24(3), 289-290. doi: 10.1002/crq.175

Titley, E. B. (1986). A Narrow Vision:Duncan Campbells Scott and the Administration of Indian Affairs in Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

Youngfox, C. (Artist). (2012). Sunset Dancers. [Print Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.whetung.com/shop/cards/C-CY-SunsetDancers.jpg