A message from FNHA's Patricia Vickers, Director, Mental Wellness
Elders have continuously reminded us that everything is connected. The Chief, the land, the supernatural, the people, our history, our sacred stories, everything is connected.
As part of these vital connections, fasting, purification ceremonies and rituals are all actions given to us by our ancestors to help us keep our hearts, minds and souls clean. There are still those who have the ability to see when a person has lost their spiritual balance due to suffering from trauma (soul loss). And furthermore, there are still women and men in Indigenous communities who know how to assist a person to retrieve the lost parts of self. These same principles are a part of effective methodologies for healing from the impacts of trauma.
As Indigenous peoples, the trauma suffered by children in Indian Residential Schools spans over at least two generations or even more. We now know that this repeated trauma impacts the growth and well-being of a child. Indian Residential Schools interrupted the developmental functions of what Dr. Bruce Perry of the Child Trauma Academy identifies as the "six core strengths" (below). Dr. Perry states that each one builds upon the other, starting with "attachment," i.e., without attachment to a loving, present care-giver, self-regulation is impaired.
The six core strengths identified by Dr. Perry are:
• attachment (loving relationship with caregiver is the first neurological process that is organized and developed in the brain),
• self-regulation (the loving caregiver teaches the infant how to self-regulate basic needs by responding to the infant),
• affiliation (once the infant learns how to self-regulate, they are able to connect with others),
• awareness and attunement (the infant needs a sense of self to become attuned to others),
• tolerance (the child learns there are differences and that they are a part of the larger whole),
• respect for diversity (a recognition that differences are important to the strength of the whole).
Underneath the surface within families, tribes, Nations and communities are facts of dehumanization through institutionalized atrocities and injustices against children. This history of trauma continues to impact the growth and development of our collective self and inhibits the development of the core strengths listed above. The eruption of a string of suicide attempts, violence in a family, deception and betrayal are coupled with and cannot be separated from intergenerational historical trauma. A community crisis, regardless of what the nature of the suffering may be, is connected with our collective history.
What then gives us the patience, empathy and compassion to be present in the midst of the suffering? It is this: the belief that we are not our history, that dehumanizing conditioning is simply conditioning and not who we are as a people. When crisis and conflict occur, our values and principles and the spiritual teachers in our communities continue to be our most precious resources.
I'm very grateful to all of the men and women who have assisted me when I struggled with traumatic events that I suffered in childhood, and then through the guilt and shame I felt about unintentionally inflicting rage and shame on my precious children.
Our sacred purification ways are what enable us to reclaim our six core strengths for healthy development. The brain heals. The nervous system heals. The body heals.
