Residential School Healing and Resurgence - Essay Example

Residential School Healing and Resurgence Residential School Healing and Resurgence Within a framework of this paper, I would like to discuss the topic of residential school healing and resurgence of Anishinabe people, and provide a reflection on the course I am about to finish. This paper will include a brief introduction to the topic, consideration of the most discussed aspects of the topic, analysis of a currently existing dialogue in regards to this topic, as well as my feedback on the course. At the outset, there is a need to briefly describe the problem of Anishinabe people and explain the necessity of healing and resurgence programs. The beginning of the story dates back to the year of 1883 when it had become mandatory for Native children to attend residential schools and assimilate into the Canadian community. In the 1800s, when the process of assimilation of Anishinabe children began, they appeared to be basically forced to relinquish their cultural beliefs and practices for a sake of better assimilation. Those children were taken away from their families, parental care, and were put into a completely new surrounding. Over a period of a couple of years, the first stories of sexual and physical abuse came to light. However, the first was yet to come. When generations of Anishinabe children came back from residential schools, the vast majority of them had an unbearable burden of psychological trauma and shame resulting from different types of abuses they had experienced while staying in the residential schools. It appeared to be hard for those children to cope with everyday activities. Not only those children were destined to live on reservations, which is itself a significant psychological burden, but they also were the subject for abuse and harassment. 1 __________________________________ 1. Dionne, Dee, “Recovery in the Resiential School Abuse Aftermath: A New Healing Paragigm”, University of Lethbridge Press, pp. 193. As a result, it made an impact not only on their own lives, but also on the lives of they families, their community, and even the life of generations to come. The list of negative consequences of residential schooling includes a loss of native language, destruction of culture, different types of chronic addictions, cases of broken families, feeling of cultural shame, interpersonal violence, inter-generational sexual abuse, and so on and so forth. During the course, I not only obtained knowledge regarding this problem of Anishinabe people but also became familiar with different efforts and solutions implemented by the government of Canada in a response to the problem. Thus, I have learned that many years later after the problem had occurred, the government of Canada decided to establish the AHF or the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. It happened in March 1998, and the AHFs major concern was to address the legacy of abuse experience by Aboriginals in residential schools. However, it is not the only goal of the foundation. Other ones include promotion of healing between Canadians and residential school survivors by truth telling and acknowledgment of the mistakes made by Canadians in the past. In other words, this foundation and all of its programs are essential for Canada in terms of apologizing for the black parts of its history, and for residence school survivors in terms of having a chance to overcome the burden of the past.2 Apart from it, I have learned about both traditional and non-traditional types of healing practices designed to help Anishinabe people in their recovery. It needs to be pointed out that regardless of differences between the two types of practice, there is at least one point representatives of both approaches seem to agree about. __________________________________ 2. Lee, Damien,“Re-envisioning Reconciliation: Indigenous Peoples and Resurgence in Canada”, The Rabble Canada, 2012. It has been identified that survivors of residential schooling should never be treated in isolation. Thus, practitioners taking part in the healing process encourage family, neighbours, friends, and the community at large to take part in the healing process. It is believed that a so-called collective healing is likely to enhance a strengthening of Anishinabe ethnocultural identity. This approach based on a combination of traditional and non-traditional healing practices is believed to be the most effective in terms of the problem. From the statement given by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation in 2002, we learn that the First Nations people are beginning more and more to seek out mutually applied traditional and non-traditional healing practices. 3 Speaking of the effectiveness of residential school healing programs, it is necessary to keep in mind the fact that human mind, brain, and body are all associated and interdependent hence if even one of them appears to be out of balance, everything else will not be balanced. That is why a combination of traditional and non-traditional healing practices appears to be the most effective approach. It is necessary to point out that traditional healing includes Powwow, Medicine Wheel, and healing circle, and non-traditional healing stands for such practices as somatic therapy, Cognitive behavioral therapy, just to name a few. It is worth mentioning that all the practices described above have been proven to be effective.4 __________________________________ 3. Dionne, Dee, “Recovery in the Resiential School Abuse Aftermath: A New Healing Paragigm”, University of Lethbridge Press, pp. 193. 4. Manitowabi, Darrel. “The Meaning of Anishinabe Healing and Wellbeing on Manitoulin Island”. A Journal of Aboriginal and Indigenous Community Health 9(2), 2011, pp. 441- 458. It is necessary to consider some of the most common psychological problems associated with a so-called residential schooling syndrome. Studies show that the survivors of residential schooling are likely to suffer from a loss of self-worth, lack of spiritual and emotional connection, shortage of comforting attention, and so forth. Obviously, all the above-mentioned problems are psychological by their nature, therefore, require attention and help of psychologists and mental health professionals.5 I would also like to add that due to the course I have become more aware of the scale of the problem of Anishinabe people. Although I had possessed some knowledge regarding the subject before the start of the course, I have to admit that today I have a significantly wider view on the problem. It never fully occurred to me that the whole generation of people was destined to have a completely conditioned and institutionalized living that had become the only kind of life representatives of this sub-culture even knew. Now I can at least imagine how many children were the targets of the religious and social authority. There are reasonable grounds to state that fairness was never associated with those children, and it was never even considered in relation to them. Another important thing I realized due to the course is that no child from those residential schools was ever considered an autonomous human being nor he or she was treated accordingly. As a conclusion to all mentioned above, I have to say that now I feel like I have a much more knowledge about people of Anishinabe community. I not only know the history of this ethnic and cultural group but also have a deeper understanding of what it was like to go through __________________________________ 5. Stout, Madeleine, and Kipling, Gregory. “Aboriginal People, Resilience and the Residential School Legacy”. Aboriginal Healing Founcation, pp. 64. such a difficult and life-changing experience as being a student in a residential school. I believe that this knowledge can help me to better understand myself and appreciate what I have in my life. Moreover, I firmly believe that having knowledge about the roots of the problem and understanding the outcomes of it, makes it possible for me to make a contribution and change current policies in regards to residential school healing for better. One more thing I would like to mention is that this course helped me to deeply understand a famous statement saying that ‘without history there is no future’. Now it is clear to me that learning history as well as acknowledging mistakes of the past is what increases our chances to build a brighter future. Thus, I am really glad about having a chance to study this interesting yet difficult in terms of emotions course. Bibliography Dionne, Dee. “Recovery in the Resiential School Abuse Aftermath: A New Healing Paragigm”. University of Lethbridge Press, pp. 193. Lee, Damien. “Re-envisioning Reconciliation: Indigenous Peoples and Resurgence in Canada”. The Rabble Canada, 2012. Stout, Madeleine, and Kipling, Gregory. “Aboriginal People, Resilience and the Residential School Legacy”. Aboriginal Healing Founcation, pp. 64. Manitowabi, Darrel. “The Meaning of Anishinabe Healing and Wellbeing on Manitoulin Island”. A Journal of Aboriginal and Indigenous Community Health 9(2), 2011, pp. 441- 458. Read More