Sorry Business


“When grief and trauma are not attended to with awareness and compassion in one generation, the deleterious effects of that trauma and grief cascade through the family tree, creating a domino effect of dysfunction.”                                                                                                                -  Karthleen Curzie Gajdos 
On Monday evening, this week, I had the privilege of attending a NAIDOC week dinner with a group of indigenous students and their parents. NAIDOC is the acronym for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. Its origins can be traced to the emergence of Aboriginal groups in the 1920′s which sought to increase awareness in the wider community of the status and treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
I was seated at a table of eight (8) people.  Some were dignitaries, others guest speakers from the first nations and their family members and others like myself invited guests as members of the school community.  The menu was based on traditional indigenous ingredients, many of which I had never tasted before, and I must say were delicious.  I especially enjoyed the Paperbark barramundi and saltbush wild rice topped with Warrigal greens.  My husband loved the wattle seed damper – consuming at least 3 slices. The young people served the food and then removed the dishes at the conclusion of the meal.

The entertainment for the evening included a PowerPoint presentation showing the various indigenous communities and cultural diversity of the group.  My favourite photo was of Palm Island depicting a sunset from under a pier. The natural beauty of this young mans home country was amazing and enabled me to understand how home sickness may negatively impact on this young person’s future.  That he may choose not to complete his education and return to this remote island where there are few opportunities for employment.  I think the ‘pull’ of going ‘home’ is strong in first nations people as they have such a strong connection to ‘country’.
The guest speaker, a young indigenous woman, shared some of her ‘truths’ of growing up as an indigenous woman in a predominantly white culture.  She talked about racism and bullying at school, about making choices that caused her further disadvantage such as leaving school early and not getting an education and believing she was not smart enough to succeed.  The overall theme of the talk was – you are not your skin colour, you are smart enough, and you need to be proud of your heritage and who you are on the inside and outside.  I found her speech truly inspirational.

Inter-generational Trauma

Give Voice to the Truth
  by Linda B
This got me thinking about the current theme for NAIDOC week – voice, treaty, truth – indigenous people seeking recognition in the constitution that in the European settlement of Australia in 1788, there were no treaties, no formal settlements, no compacts. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people therefore did not cede sovereignty to this land. It was taken from them by force.  Many of them were killed or displaced in the process.  Since that time indigenous communities have been fractured, people have been treated as sub- human and traumatised, and even today they suffer from racism and significant disadvantage in the areas of health, education, housing etc. The Aboriginal and Islander people have and continue to suffer from the effects of grief and loss.  
Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people refer to grief as ‘sorry business’. This term is often cited in reference to grief associated with the long-term effects of the Stolen generations, or a cultural separation from land, language, or knowledge. In some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, the grief is ongoing because of the ‘unfinished business’ of the Stolen generations and other impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. If this grief stays unresolved, it may be passed on through the generations of a family; this is called intergenerational grief.

Passing on Trauma Through DNA

Jonathan Davis ( Thursday March 3rd , 2016, UpliftConnect) suggests in his article “Can Trauma Be Passed on through Our DNA?” that intergenerational trauma can affect the children and grandchildren of those who had the first- hand experience, sue to living with a person who has suffered from PTSD and the associated challenges it brings.  For example, Vietnam veterans’ families, Holocaust survivors and their families,  and many first nations peoples and communities. However, the emerging field of epigenetics is discovering that trauma is not only being passed down by simply learned behaviours, but also through our genes.

Davis explains in his article this has enormous consequences for us as a species because if we can determine how this occurs then we can devise a treatment plan. According to the article transpersonal psychologists report that when our bodies defense mechanisms are overwhelmed, we try to avoid feeling the emotions and bury them until we have the courage to face the experience in its entirety, thus coming to an emotional completion.  A number of issues may prevent this from happening: lack of support, an unsafe environment and struggle with the concept of being retraumatised by remembering the event/s.

Embrace your Grief and then Let it Go

The Art of Letting Go: Art Journal Page.
By Linda B
Davis' says part of the process of healing requires the traumatised person to “accept and allow the feelings of pain and discomfort to exist, instead of trying to hide them, avoid them or push them away. As soon as a person judges and labels their inner pain as something bad or something they don’t want or don’t like, they are inadvertently and unwittingly grabbing and holding their pain and preventing it from leaving.”

Anyone who has experienced a traumatic event will realise that while this sounds good on paper, it is not so easy to do in reality. I have still been unable to write or reflect on the day of my son’s suicide. I have accepted that he has died and I know the truth of his story but, I am not yet able to give it a voice.  I know at some point in the future I will have to rip the bandade off, but I am not ready yet.

Perhaps this generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders will have the strength and courage to peel back the layers of loss, treat the wounds, and recover: physically, emotionally and spiritually. 

I pray they can and I hope all non-indigenous Australian's will support them in this process regardless of whether the are supportive or not for the treaty proposition.




Support in Moving On:
by Linda B
References

https://upliftconnect.com/intergenerational-trauma/

https://healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au

https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/2020565112_Kathleen_Curzie_Gajdos

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