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Intergenerational Trauma In Canada

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Introduction
The little community of Attawapiskat, Ontario, Canada has been and is currently facing an immense loss due to a high amount of youth suicides. The community has been under a state of emergency since April 2016 after many of the community’s youth have tried to or succeed at committing suicide. These suicides have been the product of colonialism and intergenerational trauma from the generations that came before them. The devastation in the community can teach Child and Youth Care practitioners how to put into action programs that build youth’s strengths and resilience as well as overcome any negative factor that have been created during this epidemic. Though it is important to note there have also been positive factors that have …show more content…

When European settlers came to Canada they colonized Canada by taking away land, water, rights, spiritual practice, as well as put children into residential school and put an unprecedented amount of children in the child welfare system (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015). This is a key example of how trauma can be passed down from one generation to the next until someone deals with it. Right now the youth of Attawapiskat are dealing with the intergenerational trauma as well as creating more trauma for generations to come, this creates an ongoing chain of risks that will continue to develop if not helped.
For Attawapiskat, a major risk has been the isolation, lack of resources, along with the suicides that have happened and their impact on the other youth in the community. Although there are these risks, there is also strength or positive factors in the community. Attawapiskat has come together through tremendous loss with love and resilience to call on the government to change the way they are currently handling the …show more content…

“If my day, week, or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it has racial overtones” (Mclntosh, 2002, p. 99). For this reason, I cannot fully understand the pain that Attawapiskat is going through. I do have personal experience with friend’s committing suicide and my own depression, however, it is not the same as what this community is going through. As a Child and Youth Care practitioner who is not of Indigenous descent, I would need work next to the community and walk with them, being a friend and partner and not let there be any power

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