Essay On Intergenerational Trauma In Canada

Words: 1094
Pages: 5

“It happened so long ago, why don’t they just get over it?” This a common comment often made by those who do not understand how deeply Indigenous Canadians are affected by intergenerational trauma. The most notable interconnection of intergenerational trauma and Canadian Indigenous people is Indian residential schools, where children and youth were removed from their homes, communities and most importantly from their families. The epidemic aftermath of Indian residential schools is unbelievably staggering due to the long-term effects still plaguing many nations and generations of Canada’s Indigenous people. The cycle of abuse and dysfunction continues long after residential school because many residential school survivors pass the abuse they …show more content…
When the children were integrated into mainstream schools, they struggled with adjusting to the Eurocentric education system, and with non-Indigenous peers who discriminated against them for being Indigenous (Hanson 4). The residential school system set an epidemic foundation for domestic abuse and violence against Indigenous women and children. Generations of Indigenous children grew up without nurturing family lives and as adults many of the survivors who only experienced abuse, abused their children and family members. The feeling the sense of worthless, instilled in the survivors by attending residential school contributed to very low self-esteem (Hanson 5). In turn, manifested into high rates of alcoholism, drug addiction, and suicide. According to Hanson, the number one case of death is suicide and self-inflicted injures (5). Intergenerational trauma is definitely a key issue that affects the lives of a large number of Indigenous people in Canada; the Indigenous people have unique histories and have had various aspects of trauma affects, it definitely affects the lives of Indigenous people in Canada (U of Calgary