Module 4 Post 1: Building Compassion and Empathy

Image from: Deseret News

“How we go home: Voices from Indigenous North America” (Sinclair, 2020), is a collection of Indigenous voices from North American Indigenous people, not only from USA but also from Canada. There is an interview in this book with Johnna James – “Indigenous Perspectives on Historical Trauma” (Sinclair, 2020). Disturbing reports about suicide rates, incarceration rates, and homelessness are shared. Rates for all of these are higher among Indigenous people. Johnna points out that these are tied to historical trauma. They do not receive the help they need, and having no support, they easily turn to substance abuse and suicide. Criminalized and imprisoned acts are often linked to poverty, lack of educational and employment opportunities, substance use, mental health concerns, and histories of sexual abuse, violence and trauma. Johnna refers to this as colonialism. Johnna also talks about the effects of residential schools, how they have destroyed family systems and caused attachment disorders. What really bothers me is how children were taken from their families and given to strangers. These strangers didn’t speak their language or know their ways. These strangers didn’t tuck these children in at night, give them hugs, or tell the children that they were special. When these children were sent home as young adults, it’s no surprise that they struggled when they got married and started raising their own families. Experiencing neglect, beatings, and malnourishment in residential schools starved them of an upbringing that is needed to become healthy parents themselves.

Learning about the history of Indigenous people, especially the traumas they faced, increases my empathy and compassion for them. As an educator, it is important for me to recognize that each student comes to the learning environment with a past. This past can include negative experiences, like intergenerational trauma. I believe this realization and knowledge will help me approach Indigenization with a strong desire and commitment. When my efforts are from the heart, I believe my students will recognize my sincere intentions.

References:

Deseret News. https://www.deseret.com/2013/6/7/20520810/family-unit-essential-for-economic-progress

Sinclair, S. (2020). How we go home: Voices from Indigenous North America. Haymarket Books. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ubc/detail.action?docID=6184201