Why Is This Important?
Painted drum by Barney Edward, Victoria, Canada
Exploring this subject is meaningful for multiple reasons and here are just a few of them.
- Raising awareness: In honouring and working towards a truly multicultural society, there needs to be greater awareness surrounding Indigenous peoples and issues. It is important to not let Indigenous concerns fall to the wayside and a part of this is to promote greater awareness on the root causes of current issues.
- Addressing discrimination: Indigenous peoples continue to be oppressed by the continued impacts of colonialism as well as systemic and individual racism and discrimination. Openly making stereotypical comments about Indigenous peoples seem to be somehow more acceptable and the living conditions of many Indigenous reservations in Canada are considerably sub-standard compared to the rest of Canada. Such oppression should not be tolerated.
- Eradicating blame: By looking at the cases of Australia and Canada, it is evident that the current issues experienced by Indigenous peoples are not country-specific and cannot be attributed to theories such as that of genetics or having different cultural values. The blame for these issues have often been placed squarely on the Indigenous peoples themselves, which is an act of oppression in and of itself. But by exploring this subject, informed steps can be taken to eradicate misinformed and wrongful blame.
- Pointing to the need for further research: As there are only a limited number of research studies exploring intergenerational trauma specifically amongst Indigenous peoples, we are left to rely mostly on research on other population groups such as Holocaust survivors. There is hence a very pressing need to fill in this considerable research gap. As other explanations for the prominence of current issues being experienced by Indigenous peoples are not sufficient, further research on the connection between the current issues and intergenerational trauma and attachment is definitely worth pursuing.