Breaking the cycle of trauma.
What is Trauma
Trauma happens when someone experiences something deeply upsetting, overwhelming, or frightening that has lasting effects on their mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing. For Indigenous peoples, trauma is often rooted in the ongoing impacts of colonization, including residential schools, displacement, and loss of culture and language. These experiences can affect individuals, families, and communities across generations. Understanding trauma is an important step toward healing in ways that are safe, meaningful, and grounded in culture.
Residential Schools and Other Forms of Colonization
Over the last century, about 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced to attend residential schools across Canada. The Northwest Territories was home to 14 residential schools, with the last closing in 1994. These schools, along with other colonial policies, separated children from their families, cultures, and languages, causing deep harm. The impacts are still felt today, affecting mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. In the NWT, this history has contributed to higher rates of health challenges, family violence, and substance use, creating lasting trauma for individuals, families, and communities.
Trauma and Addictions
Trauma is not the same as addiction and requires a different kind of care. Trauma is the response to deeply upsetting or harmful experiences, while addiction is a pattern of using drugs or alcohol to cope with pain. While trauma can lead to substance use and addiction, sobriety on its own does not heal the trauma underneath. Healing means addressing the root cause of the pain – not just the addiction – so people can move forward in healthy and meaningful ways.
Our work to create a safe and welcoming space for trauma healing is guided by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 21 and the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). These commitments support Indigenous-led solutions and recognize the importance of culturally grounded healing.
Endacho Healing Society is working to bring Call to Action 21 to life by developing and operating a sustainable, Indigenous-led Trauma Healing Lodge in the Northwest Territories.
TRC call to action #21 and UNDRIP
TRC Call 21:
“We call upon the federal government to provide sustainable funding for existing and new Aboriginal healing centres to address the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual harms caused by residential schools, and to ensure that the funding of healing centres in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories is a priority”
RESOURCES
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Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action
Released in 2015, TRC’s Calls to Action report outlines 94 recommendations aimed at addressing the lasting impacts of residential schools, advancing reconciliation across Canada. Also in 2015, the federal government made a commitment to fully implement all 94 Calls.
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United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
UNDRIP is an international framework that outlines the rights of Indigenous peoples around the world. It affirms rights related to self-determination, culture, language, land, and access to health and social services. Canada’s UNDRIP Act came into force in 2021, aimed to advance the implementation of the Declaration.
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Canada’s Residential Schools: The Legacy
TRC’s The Legacy report looks at the lasting impacts of residential schools on Indigenous peoples, families and communities, explaining how the harms continue to affect health, wellbeing, culture and relationships today.