Yesterday, I posted a blog from Gabor Maté entitled Our Strange Indifference To Aboriginal Addiction. I highlighted the following about society’s – it’s not just Canada – response to the problems of addiction amongst Aboriginal people.
‘We seem to comfort ourselves with the belief that the endemic drug addiction and alcoholism are unfortunate realities for which we, as a society, bear no responsibility. From both scientific and historical perspectives, such a view is distorted and self-serving.’ Gabor Maté
I’ve heard many non-Aboriginal Australian people say in relation to Aboriginal people: “Why don’t they just get over it?” (Yeh, like non-Aboriginal people just get over diabetes, cancer or rape)
Well, my response to that is the work I am starting to undertake on illustrating impact of historical, or intergenerational, trauma on Aboriginal peoples, and highlighting of healing of historical trauma. This work is carried out in close collaboration with Noongar leader and academic Dr Marion Kickett and filmmaker Michaela Liu.
Here is Joe Solanto, from Canada, talking about intergenerational trauma & healing. There are three videos, totally just over 20 minutes, and I strongly recommend you watch each.
In the clip above, Dr. Solanto discusses what trauma is, how the experiences of colonization “qualify” as trauma, how trauma might be transmitted across the generations, crime and other social problems as understandable responses to trauma and implications for healing individuals, families and communities.
Part 2: continues looking at what underlies intergenerational trauma
Part 3: focuses on healing
