Toronto I-II 4:00 pm
Working Upstream: Strategies to Address Trauma
...with Aboriginal people
Peter Menzies
Member of Sagamok
Anishnawbek First
Nation and creator of the
Centre for Addiction and
Mental Health’s Aboriginal
Services Program
Moderator: Josephine P.
Wong
Associate professor at the
Daphne Cockwell School of
Nursing, Ryerson University
Four Directions Therapeutic
and Consulting Services
Sagamok
Anishnawbek
First Nation
Phone: 1 - 289 - 927- 3060
pm_menzies@hotmail.com
HIV/AIDS:
Intergenerational Trauma A Research Framework
Monday, November 18, 2013



Understanding of intergenerational trauma
Impact
Conceptualization of practice and research

Indian Act
◦ Residential Schools
◦ Child Welfare

Societal
◦ Racism
◦ Discrimination
◦ Stereotype

Set up and run primarily by churches on behalf of the federal government to
replace Native families and communities traditions with European values

The residential school policy was designed to lift Aboriginal peoples from their
helpless ‘savage’ state to one of ‘self reliant civilization.’ To make Canada one
community

“…Aboriginal children were stripped of all their belonging, including any
artifacts of their culture, their hair was cut and their clothing were replaced
with institutional uniforms” (Mental health Profile for a sample of British
Columbia Aboriginal survivors of the Canadian Residential School System
(2003)

By 1930, 75 per cent of First Nations children between the ages of 7 and 15
years were enrolled in one of 80 such schools across the country and in the
1940s, attendance was expanded to include Inuit children as well (Aboriginal
People, Resilience and the Residential School Legacy, 2003)

On individuals, families, communities and nations

Many residents were denied love, cultural expression, and the loss of family and
community experiences

Many today experience personal crises including alcoholism, drug abuse,
solvent abuse, depression, low self esteem, suicide, loneliness, family violence,
unemployment and cultural identity

Family values, parenting knowledge disruptive

Community values, customs and behaviour lost
Impact of Residential Schools

First Nations survivors of residential schools are aged 40 and older. According to the
Regional Health Survey, one-half of First Nations adults living on-reserve said their
health and well-being had been negatively affected by the residential school
experience, including isolation from family, verbal or emotional abuse, and loss of
cultural identity (Regional Health Survey, 2004)

Over 7 in 10 attendees (71.5%) had witnessed the abuse of others. Personal abuse
was reported by many: sexual abuse (32.6%); physical abuse (79.2%); and verbal or
emotional abuse (79.3%) (Regional Health Survey, 2004)

Residential School survivors were not raised by their own families, the intergenerational transmission of family values, parenting knowledge and community
behaviour has been lost (Payukotayno, 1988)

The effects of apprehension on an individual Native child will often be much more
traumatic than for his non-Native counterpart. Frequently, when the Native child is
taken from his parents, he is also removed from a tightly knit community of extended
family members and neighbors, who may have provided some support. In addition,
he is removed from a unique, distinctive and familiar culture. The Native child is
placed in a position of triple jeopardy (Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples,
1996)

Like the Residential Schools where their parents, grandparents and great
grandparents were sent, the foster care system created another generation of
children who have been subjected to psychological, emotional, sexual and physical
abuse. Isolation from their families and Aboriginal identity was intensified when some
children were sent outside of Canada to the United States and Europe for adoption
(Bagley, 1993)
Suicide among First Nations people is 3 to 4 times that of the non-Aboriginals (Health
Canada, 2003)
Aboriginals account for 7.5 per cent of the 58,000 Canadians living with HIV and 9 per
cent of all new HIV infections (The Public Health Agency of Canada, 2006)
Alcohol (73%) and drug abuse (59%) were considered problems in First Nation
communities (Health Canada, 2003)
Diabetes in Aboriginal populations is 3-5 times higher than that in the general
population and the rates are growing (Ho, 2006)
Rates of concurrent disorders suspected to be even higher (70%?) than in general
population (30-60%?) (Presentation to the First Nations and Inuit Mental Wellness
Advisory Committee June 9 -10, 2005)
Ontario First Nations Mental Health & Addictions
Childhood Abuse
Alcohol abuse
Sexual Abuse
Illicit drugs
Cultural Loss
Prescription abuse
Domestic Violence
Inhalants
Grief / Loss
Self-Esteem Issues
History of Violence/ Trauma
FASD
(Ontario Region First Nations Addictions
Service Needs Assessment, 2010)

The Indian Act also contributed to personal psychological trauma, denying many
children the right of being identified as members of their birth family and community.
This personal trauma has been compounded by the fact that several generations of
children have been directly affected by the same events experienced by older family
members

Residential schools and child welfare policies severed ties between the individual,
family and community. Forced to adopt the values of another culture that derided
their own belief system, the children were left in a cultural vacuum: relating neither to
mainstream culture nor their own community

For many Aboriginal people, the connection between spiritual, emotional, physical and
mental well-being has been disrupted. Child welfare studies describe the long-term
effects of removing Aboriginal children from their birth family and placing them in nonAboriginal homes (Couchi & Nabigon, 1994; Frideres, 1998; Locust, 1999)

As adults, former residential school students and child welfare system survivors have
demonstrated symptoms of anxiety disorders, high rates of alcohol and substance
abuse, depression, suicide, and low self esteem that are significantly higher than that of
the general population (Beisner & Attneave, 1982; Gagne, 1998; Hodgson, no date;
Saltshan Institute Society, 1991)
Intergenerational Trauma
The Aboriginal Healing Foundation (2001) has noted that:

“Many passed the abuse suffered on to their children, thereby perpetuating the
cycle of abuse and dysfunctional arising from the Residential School System.
Subsequent generation of children was left with the consequences of what
happened to their parents and grandparents. They grew up without the
opportunity to learn their language, to have traditions and cultural knowledge
passed down to them, or to be apart of a strong and healthy family and
community” (p.7)

“If we do not deal with our trauma, we inadvertently hand it down to the next
generation. We often take out our pain and hurt on those we love the most – which
is ourselves, and those closest to us – our family and friends. So, intergenerational
trauma is trauma that is passed down behaviourally to the next generation: if we’re
angry and act angry all the time to others, our kids will think that’s normal and do the
same. If we ignore each other and deprive each other of love and affection in our
relationships, our kids see and feel that deprivation of love and might think it’s
normal” (Phillips, 1999)
Homeless Intergenerational Trauma
Model
Intergenerational Trauma
Indian Act
NATION




INDIVIDUAL
Lack of a sense of “belonging”, identification
or affiliation with a specific family, community,
culture, or nation
Feeling of “abandonment” by caregivers
Limited or no information about one’s culture
of birth including language, customs, belief
systems, spirituality
One or more “flight” episodes as a youth from
a caregiver environment
Inability to sustain personal or intimate
relationships
Being present oriented, not future oriented
Limited education and/or employment history
Involvement with the mental health system
History of substance misuse
History of involvement with the criminal justice
system precipitated by substance misuse
Low self esteem

Popularization of negative
stereotypes through mainstream
media
Social policies that perpetuate
colonialism of Aboriginal people on
an individual, family and community
basis
Lack of support for holistic programs
and services targeting Aboriginal
needs
Lack of support for community selfdetermination









Homelessness
Intergenerational
Trauma
COMMUNITY




Child Welfare
Unconcealed alcohol and/or drug
misuse among community members
Lack of cultural opportunities including
transmission of language skills, history,
traditional values, and spirituality
Unwillingness to “reclaim” community
members
Low levels of social capital (Putnam,
2000), including trust, reciprocal
helping relations and social
engagement
Intergenerational
Trauma
FAMILY






Chronic or episodic family violence
including physical, sexual,
emotional, and/or verbal abuse of
children by adults in the household
Lack of emotional bonding
between parents, siblings and
extended family members
Denial of cultural heritage by older
family members
Unconcealed and rampant alcohol
and drug misuse that crosses
generations
Perpetuation of negative
stereotypes within the family of
birth or caregiver environment
Irregular contact or the absence of
contact with caregiver family
members
Traditional
Aboriginal Culture
Residential
Schools
(Menzies, 2007)
Transmission of Intergenerational
Trauma

“Psychodynamic: contends that trauma is passed to the child through the
unconscious absorption of repressed and unintegrated trauma experiences

Sociocultural models focus on the direct impact the parents and social
environment have on the child, as the child learns vicariously through
observation

The family systems model focuses on communication between generations and
the degree of enmeshment that occurs

The transmission of trauma is frequently noted in reference to untreated or
unspoken survivor trauma, as it may pass to future generations if not treated
(Kidron, 2003) (Denham, p397, 2008)

“In other words, an individual focused approach to understanding trauma in the
context of the peoples of Canada’s First Nations misses the fact that traumatic
impacts are rooted not only in the specific experiences of any individual’s unique life
story and experiences, but also that traumatic impacts are structured by the
historical legacy and contemporary realities of social inequalities” (Haskell et al,
2009, p49)
(Gagne, 1998)
(Gagne, 1998)

Foundation

Process
◦ Resiliency
◦ Strengthen based
◦ Community/Tribal driven and ownership, including worldview and tradtions

Meaning
◦ First Nation
◦ Tribal