Legacy: Trauma, Story, and Indigenous Healing
By: Suzanne Methot
Introduction:
In the Book, Legacy : Trauma, Story, and Indigenous Healing, one quote that stood out to me when I first began reading stated, “where Indigenous people and communities are dysfunctional and/or in crisis, it is because of colonialism, not because they are Indigenous” (P.5). I find this statement to be powerful because it lets people know that we, as Indigenous people, struggle, because the system and world we are living in was made to work against us. Colonization has been the common factor that has hurt our Indigenous way of life, as a result, all Native people are affected by colonization in one way or another. Within the introduction of this book, Suzanne Methot an Asiniwachi Nehiyaw Indigenous writer, talks about some of the common issues found Indigenous communities such as conflict amongst their own people, high suicide rates, culture loss, and high amounts of addictions. While pointing out these issues, Methot explains the root cause is trauma and colonization. Many people within Indigenous communities have lost their traditional core values because of colonization therefore, our way of life has become impacted in these sorts of ways. I would highly recommend this book for those who are trying to understand how trauma and colonization has created a dysfunction in our way of life and influenced the way we chose to work with one another. This book explains how Indigenous people’s way of life is interconnected with everything therefore, valuing and caring for one another and all living things is what is going to help us heal from the past trauma.
“Acknowledging the damage that colonization has wrought on Indigenous communities is a crucial first step in healing and in reconciliation.” (P.17)
“For Indigenous people, the work of the next seven generations will be to make meaning of present issues in light of past events and return to the habits and routines that ensure movement, balance, connection, and relationship.” (P.18)
“Non- Indigenous Canadians must recognize the wisdom contained with Indigenous science and philosophy and must accept this wisdom – this way of seeing – as a legitimate body of knowledge with Canadian Systems and institutions.” (P.18)
Chapter 3: Becoming Human
The chapter on becoming human touches on the basics of what it takes to develop into a human being with skills that work to protect you and work with others. Within this chapter, Suzanne explains that many Indigenous children who experience trauma at an early age tend to lack the ability to express themselves, communicate with others, and value themselves in ways that help them flow through life because it has trained their mind and body to react in a way that would protect them from these traumatic experiences. Suzanne dives deep to explain how different traumatic experiences can hinder a child’s adulthood. Colonialism has been biggest factor in the cause of this trauma in Indigenous children and one way Suzanne states this is by saying “I see beauty, strength, goodness, and exceptional intelligence in my students every single day, but those qualities exist in spite of, and underneath, layers and layers of negative emotion that have been handed down to them as a legacy of colonialism.” (P.37) This unresolved trauma within Native people that continuously gets handed down to our newest generation of Native children is a cycle that is slowly breaking. Even though there are many Native people who learn, educate, and get help with their trauma it is still a lot of healing our communities need to do. One of the first steps is by recognizing the trauma and how it’s affecting our people and ourselves today.
Chapter 7: What our Bodies Remember
One of the biggest takeaways I have received from reading “What our bodies remember” is that our mind, body, and spirit are more interconnected and powerful than we think. It is crazy to think that when a physical symptom shows up within our bodies that we could just be experiencing a mind or spiritual imbalance and our way of telling our own body is by alerting it through a physical symptom. From my knowledge, this tends to happen a lot with people who have anxiety or depression. Anxiety and depression like to react in a way in which a physical symptom which first appears before you start to realize that your mind has an imbalance or sometimes it might just do the opposite. Your mind will be fully aware that there is an imbalance with it but by not reacting in a way to create a balance then physical symptoms will appear. Within this chapter of Suzanna’s book, we come to an understanding that Indigenous people’s bodies will react in different ways to the world because of our holistic mindset. This mindset also acknowledges the great amount of baggage and restrictions we have to carry because of colonization. As a result, it puts a rut in our natural way of life and creates different types of imbalances in ourselves. Therefore, we need more Indigenous knowledge, practices, and medicine to be valued in order for this knowledge to spread to others.
“The loneliness suffered by children in residential schools — removed from their families, forbidden from speaking to siblings, away from their home territories for months or years at a time, forbidden from practicing their cultures or speaking their languages, and receiving little or no affection — also set them up for a lifetime of negative health outcomes.” (P.98)
“What these studies and statistics tell us is that colonization has had a negative effect on the Indigenous body. The dis-ease felt in Indigenous communities is the physical manifestation of intergenerational trauma and the metaphysical inheritance of the pain of colonial history.” (P.99)
“More often than not, the symptoms point to a problem with the whole: the disconnections and distorted relationships that underlie the symptoms.” (P.102)
“That story is the sum total of everything that the person has seen, experienced, heard, and understood across time.” (P.102)
Chapter 9: Recreating the Structures of Belonging
Listen to my reflection on chapter 9 through this video link:
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