I’m happy to see the ongoing support and assistance in our northern remote communities to help our people cope with so many lifelong and generational issues, trauma and pain that our people carry. It took me many years to understand that these programs or services are not a one-stop service or a single program that will provide instant resolutions or cures for the issues that plague our people. Much of the trauma that our people deal with are issues that affect our communities across generations.
These are issues that stem from generations of systemic racism in our northern communities, where being Indigenous was considered something negative to be looked down upon. That culture of looking down on a people is what led to the Residential School system, where Indigenous children were removed from their families and taught that they were not good enough as people. That cultural racism is also what led to the 60s Scoop, where Indigenous children were swept into the foster care system. There are also many more issues and difficulties that Indigenous people face everywhere across Canada that contribute to our families having to deal with way more trauma, tragedy and sadness. All those past harms may have stopped but when people suffer those difficulties as children, it is a pain they carry with them for a lifetime.
So if these issues are born of years, decades, or generations, it stands to reason that it will also take a great deal of time, or even lifetimes, to deal with them in a positive and healing way.
…. to read the column, please click on the link below
https://wawataynews.ca/blogs-columns/every-step-towards-future-counts
