Historical trauma and the impact of settler colonialism in the US and beyond (if you use this- please site me). Impact of colonialism in the US and beyond.

1. HistoricalTrauma Class
Danica Love Brown, CAC III, MSW, ABD
10/15/18
Bonnie Duran Dr.P.H., Professor (pronouns she/her)
UW School of Social Work & Indigenous Wellness Research
Institute http://www.iwri.org

2. 2
• 63-Single- Mixed race Native,
1st gen college student- Product
of the civil rights and women’s
movement-
• SFSU (SDSU) & Cal Berkeley
• Grew up professionally in
urban Indian community clinics
and tribal communities
• UNM- 1995- 2006
• IWRI-2007 Theorizing life,
work and resistance
• Spiritual traditions

3.  Colonization as a Cultural Event
 Intergenerational Trauma: Definitions and
symptoms
 Mechanisms: Research and Cultural Practices
 Overcoming Historical Trauma: Postcolonial
Practice and Empowerment
 Engaging White Fragility and the next steps
for Indigenous peoples

4.  1492 there was
10,000,000 Indians in
North and South
America
 1900 there was
250,000 Indians in
North America

6. 1. Control of Economy-land appropriation, labor
exploitation, control of natural resources
2. Control of Authority-government, normative social
institutions, army
3. Control of Gender and Sexuality- family, education
4. Control of Subjectivity and Knowledge -epistemology,
education and formation of subjectivity
Quijano A. Coloniality and modernity/rationality. Cultural Studies 2007;21(2-3):168-178.

7.  Western values and culture are
universal and the pinnacle of
social evolution;
 Science is neutral;
 Subjectivity is universal and
transparent;
 Resistance is ignorance;
 Learning is uni-linear

8.  Genealogy: 17th Century No. Europe Reformation thought,
Enlightenment, French Revolution crystallized in 18th Century
into “Modernity/Coloniality” and consolidated within the
Industrial Revolution and motivated, in part, by colonization
 Philosophically, emergence of the notion of “Man” as the
foundation for all knowledge & order, separate from the natural
and the divine ~ teleological action~
 Culturally, Lifeworld is subsumed by forms of expert knowledge
linked to capital and state administrative apparatuses
(Foucault's disciplines)
 Sociologically, rise of nation-state institution, knowledges for
material reproduction Indigenous and Subalterns studies scholars in the America’s,
India, the Atlantic, Poststructuralists, Critical theorists..

9. 1. Modern Western reason is emancipatory, BUT modernity’s
“underside,” namely,
a) the imputation of the superiority of European civilization,
b) assumption that Europe’s development must be followed
unilaterally by every other culture
2. Western knowledge worldview - human development is a
master narrative requiring the congruence of other cultures.
3. TheWest determines fitness for world citizenship is based on
Western knowledge that decides the criteria for what is
reasonable and what is not reasonable.
4. Globalization: all world cultures and societies are reduced to
being a manifestation of European history and culture.

11. 11

12.  The basket drum
 The drum stick
 The Plumed
wands
 Kethawns
 Sacrificial
Cigarettes
12
Matthews, W. (1893). Some Sacred
Objects of the Navajo Tribe. Archives of the
International Folklore Association 1, 227-254.

13. 13
Garth, T. R. (1923). A Comparison of the Intelligence of
Mexican and Mixed and Full Blood Indian Children.
Psychological Review, 30, 388-401.

14. Garth, T. R. (1923). A Comparison of the Intelligence
of Mexican and Mixed and Full Blood Indian Children.
Psychological Review, 30, 388-401.
Parker, T. (1891). Concerning American
Indian Womanhood-An Ethnological Study.
American Gynecology and Pediatrics, 5, 330-341.

15. 15

16.  Evidence based
Interventions may be
the a form of forced
acculturation
 Indigenous health
promotion and
treatment is often
effective “cultural
revitalization”
16

19. AlfredW. Crosby, author of Ecological Imperialism andThe Columbian Exchange, Professor Emeritus of
Geography, American Studies and History,University ofTexas

20.  In 1491 there were more
people living in the Americas
than in Europe.
 Indigenous people in the
America’s transformed their
land so completely that
Europeans arrived in a
hemisphere already
massively "landscaped" by
human beings.

21.  Pre-Columbian Indians in
Mexico developed corn by
a breeding process so
sophisticated that a
“Science” author
described it as "man’s
first, and perhaps the
greatest, feat of genetic
engineering."
AGRICULTURE Prehistoric GM Corn NinaV. FedoroffS Science
14 November 2003: 302 (5648), 1158-1159.
[DOI:10.1126/science.1092042]

22.  Tenochtitlan, the Aztec
capital had a far greater
population than any
contemporary European
city, and unlike any capital in
Europe at that time, had
 running water
 beautiful botanical gardens
 immaculately clean streets

23.  2000 B.C. -Here, eat this root.
 1000 A.D. -That root is heathen. Here, say this
prayer.
 1850 A.D. -That prayer is superstition. Here, drink
this potion.
 1940 A.D. -That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow
this pill.
 1985 A.D. -That pill is ineffective. Here, take this
antibiotic.
 2000 A.D. -That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat
this root.

24. EPISTEMICIDE

25. 1. The right to life and to exist;
2. The right to continue vital
cycles and processes free
from human alteration;
3. The right to pure water and
clean air;
4. The right to balance;
5. The right not to be polluted;
6. The right to not have
cellular structure modified
or genetically altered.

26. 26

28.  Primarily due to generations of colonization
and physical and cultural genocide.
 Cumulative emotional wounding over time –
over the lifespan and across generations.
 The trauma is experienced individually and
by entire communities over multiple
generations.

29.  Family members who have not directly
experienced the trauma can feel the effects of
the event generations later.
 First observed by western MH in 1966 --Large
number of children of survivors of the Nazi
Holocaust seeking treatment in clinics in
Canada.

30.  HT as an etiological factor or causal agent
 E.g., Historically traumatic events
 HT as an outcome
 E.g., Historical trauma response (or CTR)
 HT as a mechanism or pathway
 e.g., storytelling in families + Vulnerability?
 HT as Social Movement
 E.g., as organizing principle for change

32. 32
Walters, K. L., & Simoni, J. M. (2002). Reconceptualizing native women's health: an "indigenist" stress-
coping model. Am J Public Health, 92(4), 520-524.

34. 34
De Bellis, M. D. (2002). Developmental traumatology: a contributory mechanism for alcohol and
substance use disorders. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 27(1-2), 155-170.

36. cumulative
vulnerability that
colonization; i.e.,
epidemic disease,
forced removal,
warfare, and white
cultural hegemony,
have had on the
physical manifestation
of health among
indigenous peoples.
36

37.  Socioeconomic status is divided along color lines-
downturn disproportionately effected POC–
 2 to 9 x more likely for subprime mortgages, etc.
 Physiological effects of bias and discrimination-
 HistoricalTrauma and epigenetics
 Weathering effect-
 Allostatic load
 Life-course effect
 Structural Racism-Microagressions

38.  Socioeconomic status is divided along color lines-
downturn disproportionately effected POC–
 2 to 9 x more likely for subprime mortgages, etc.
 Physiological effects of bias and discrimination-
 HistoricalTrauma and epigenetics
 Weathering effect-
 Allostatic load
 Life-course effect
 Structural Racism-Microagressions

39. Bonnie Duran DrPH*
IndigenousWellness Research Institute
Department of Health Services, SPH
*Slides borrowed from KarinaWalters and DianeGoodman

40.  Commonplace verbal, behavioral or
environmental indignities, whether
unintentional or intentional which
communicate hostile, derogatory, or
negative slights and insults to people from
marginalized groups.
 Based on the work of DeraldWing Sue and
colleagues

41.  Conscious biased beliefs or attitudes held by
individuals and intentionally expressed
overtly or covertly toward marginalized
groups.
 Intended to hurt the victim through name-
calling, avoidant behavior or purposeful
discriminatory actions.

42.  Interpersonal interaction (verbal/nonverbal)
or environmental cues that convey rudeness
and insensitivity that demean a person’s
identity or heritage.

43.  Interpersonal comments or behaviors and
environmental cues that exclude, negate, or
nullify the psychological thoughts, feelings,
beliefs, and experiences of the target group.
 Directly attack or deny the experiential
realities of social devalued groups.

44.  Treating like a second class citizen
 Assuming normality of dominant culture/identity
 Assuming inferiority or pathology of marginalized
identity/culture
 Denying personal bias
 Myth of meritocracy
 Ascription of intelligence
 Culture blindness
 Using offensive/biased language
 Assuming criminality

45.  Assume there are some of _____ in your
audience/class
 Use materials from POC, women, leaders, if
appropriate
 Watching out for normalizing mainstream
culture: e.g. hetero-sexism, able-ism, etc…
 Checking your “ally-ness”?

46. International Journal of Critical
Pedagogy,Vol 3 (3) (2011) pp 54-70
 Whiteness is a location of
structural advantage, of
race privilege.
 Second, it is a ‘standpoint,’
a place from whichWhite
people look at ourselves, at
others, and at society.
 Third, ‘Whiteness’ refers to
a set of cultural practices
that are usually unmarked
and unnamed. (p.1)

47.  Assumptions
 Implicit Biases
 We lean away from
pain
 Trauma has to be
known for healing
to happen

48.  Suggesting that a white person's viewpoint comes
from a racialized frame of reference (challenge to
objectivity “We are all racial beings...”)
 People of color talking directly about their own racial
perspectives (challenge to white taboos on talking
openly about race)
 People of color choosing not to protect the racial
feelings of white people in regards to race (challenge
to white racial expectations and need/entitlement to
racial comfort);

49.  People of color not being willing to tell their
stories or answer questions about their racial
experiences (challenge to the expectation that
people of color will serve us);
 A fellow white not providing agreement with
one's racial perspective (challenge to white
solidarity);
 Receiving feedback that one's behavior had a
racist impact (challenge to white racial
 innocence);

50.  Suggesting that group membership is significant
(challenge to individualism);
 An acknowledgment that access is unequal
between racial groups (challenge to meritocracy);
 Being presented with a person of color in a position
of leadership (challenge to white authority);
 Being presented with information about other
racial groups through, for example, or multicultural
education (challenge to white centrality).

51.  Segregation: Most whites live, grow, play, learn,
love, work and die primarily in social and
geographic racial segregation;
 The Good/Bad Binary:The most effective
adaptation of racism over time is the idea that
racism is conscious bias held by mean people.
 Individualism: Whites are taught to see
themselves as individuals, rather than as part of a
racial group

52.  Entitlement to racial comfort: In the
dominant position, whites are almost always
racially comfortable and thus have developed
unchallenged expectations to remain so.
 Racial Arrogance: Most whites have a very
limited understanding of racism because we
have not been trained to think in complex
ways about it and because it benefits white
dominance not to do so.

53.  Racial Belonging: White people enjoy a deeply
internalized, largely unconscious sense of racial
belonging in U.S. society
 Psychic freedom: Because race is constructed as
residing in people of color, whites don't bear the
social burden of race.
 Constant messages that we are more valuable:
Living in a white dominant context, we receive
constant messages that we are better and more
important than people of color.

54.  Being willing to tolerate the discomfort
associated with an honest appraisal and
discussion of our internalized superiority and
racial privilege.
 Challenging our own racial reality by
acknowledging ourselves as racial beings with a
particular and limited perspective on race.

55.  Attempting to understand the racial realities
of people of color through authentic
interaction rather than through the media or
unequal relationships.
 Taking action to address our own racism, the
racism of other whites, and the racism
embedded in our institutions -- e.g., get
educated and act.

56.  The "voluntary and self-motivated" pursuit of
knowledge for either personal or professional
reasons. It is an ability to:
 reflect on one’s practice and determine learning needs;
 efficiently and accurately search for learning resources
and critically appraise them;
 apply these resources in real world settings;
 manage large and changing bodies of evidence; and
 evaluate one’s competencies and practice based on
internal and external feedback. AAMC 2007