Ray Daw: From the Spirit and the Heart
Ray Daw, Navajo, is a health administrator in Alaska who has worked with the Takini Network and Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart using the historical trauma model in trainings and health care to create a better quality of life for Native people.
(Excerpts from an interview conducted March, 2013)
In my work, I am involved in understanding how people's cultural, economic and spiritual ways of being today have developed over time so that I can be more appropriate in designing native health care systems that can be more relevant to their lifestyles today. In looking at [Native people's] social economic cultural development, it almost always goes to traumatic experiences that result from colonization, forced acculturation and forced assimilation. I talk to community leaders old and young and try to really get a good understanding of how people are viewing their situation, and of how native health programs might be designed to create a better quality of life.
The idea of historical trauma has really grown across the United States, particularly with Native people. It's an idea or concept that really affects all levels of the tribes' experience. A historical trauma workshop could go on almost every day somewhere, There are forums on historical trauma, and workshops. There are a number of activities on the web, a number of movements.
9/11 and Historical Trauma
I think I can put it in a context that a lot of folks can understand—its 9/11. 911 is a historical traumatic event for America. We can very easily apply historical trauma concepts and ideas to the 911 experience. For all Americans it's important for us to really confront that attack, and to understand that from that we had emotions and feelings and thoughts that resonate from that. One of the major emotions was people being angry. Once we identify that feeling of anger, or it might be sadness or something else then understanding how that feeling creates behavior and other thoughts and attitudes. Once we begin to understand the impact of the 911 attack on us then we begin to think of ways to not feel as angry or as sad or whatever the feelings might be, and then we can begin to look at how we can move towards a more well rounded life for ourselves, instead of being stuck with that experience of being trapped, and then finding ways to connect with folks who have similar thoughts and experiences and feelings.The historical trauma model really isn't just a model that applies to Native Americans and other indigenous people, it can be applied to national experiences. The Katrina hurricane for example is another traumatic event, it affected not only New Orleans or Lousiana but resonated all across the United States. Hurricane Sandy was another historical traumatic event, so were the school shootings.
Idle No More
(In late 2012, spurred by the Canadians Government's move to pass legislation which threatened Native treaty rights and environmental protection, four women catalyzed a movement for Native and environmental rights called Idle No More which quickly spread throughout not only Native communities in the Americas but to allied communities throughout the world.)
Idle no more very much resonates with historical trauma. In historical trauma work we talk about finding ways to release and heal the pain of historical trauma. Idle no more comes from the historical trauma model.
How is Idle No More doing that?
By bringing to the forefront indigenous models that are important. Like government relationships between the federal system and the tribal system,involving tribes all across the western hemisphere, in Idle No More demonstrations. From the historical trauma perspective, Idle No More is very much about finding ways to release the pain of historical trauma and healing from historical trauma.. From someone who is very much an advocate of the historical trauma model, I watch it with great interest and a lot of support: Native people across the Western Hemispere carrying out their work to create a better life for themselves.
I think Idle No More is a really good example of a compassionate revolution. The idle no more movement is very much about non-violent demonstration. I think it's a very compassionate approach. The revolution theme is that it affects everyone's lives, Native and non-Native, because of the damage to the environment.
How can non-Native allies help to heal the historical trauma that is so much a part of this continent?
By understanding and disseminating how we understand historical trauma's impact, how historical trauma has created pain, tremendous pain, and has impacted the lives of us today, our relationships with each other and also how we can repair those relationships together to create a good life with each other. I think when we get more and more people grounded that way, regardless of ethnicity, I think we all begin to create a better world for ourselves.”
People do it from their spirit, from their heart. They just kind of take care of themselves that way. That's the first way we model healing historical trauma.
(For more information, see Ray Daw's Historical Trauma Facebook Page)
(Excerpts from an interview conducted March, 2013)
In my work, I am involved in understanding how people's cultural, economic and spiritual ways of being today have developed over time so that I can be more appropriate in designing native health care systems that can be more relevant to their lifestyles today. In looking at [Native people's] social economic cultural development, it almost always goes to traumatic experiences that result from colonization, forced acculturation and forced assimilation. I talk to community leaders old and young and try to really get a good understanding of how people are viewing their situation, and of how native health programs might be designed to create a better quality of life.
The idea of historical trauma has really grown across the United States, particularly with Native people. It's an idea or concept that really affects all levels of the tribes' experience. A historical trauma workshop could go on almost every day somewhere, There are forums on historical trauma, and workshops. There are a number of activities on the web, a number of movements.
9/11 and Historical Trauma
I think I can put it in a context that a lot of folks can understand—its 9/11. 911 is a historical traumatic event for America. We can very easily apply historical trauma concepts and ideas to the 911 experience. For all Americans it's important for us to really confront that attack, and to understand that from that we had emotions and feelings and thoughts that resonate from that. One of the major emotions was people being angry. Once we identify that feeling of anger, or it might be sadness or something else then understanding how that feeling creates behavior and other thoughts and attitudes. Once we begin to understand the impact of the 911 attack on us then we begin to think of ways to not feel as angry or as sad or whatever the feelings might be, and then we can begin to look at how we can move towards a more well rounded life for ourselves, instead of being stuck with that experience of being trapped, and then finding ways to connect with folks who have similar thoughts and experiences and feelings.The historical trauma model really isn't just a model that applies to Native Americans and other indigenous people, it can be applied to national experiences. The Katrina hurricane for example is another traumatic event, it affected not only New Orleans or Lousiana but resonated all across the United States. Hurricane Sandy was another historical traumatic event, so were the school shootings.
Idle No More
(In late 2012, spurred by the Canadians Government's move to pass legislation which threatened Native treaty rights and environmental protection, four women catalyzed a movement for Native and environmental rights called Idle No More which quickly spread throughout not only Native communities in the Americas but to allied communities throughout the world.)
Idle no more very much resonates with historical trauma. In historical trauma work we talk about finding ways to release and heal the pain of historical trauma. Idle no more comes from the historical trauma model.
How is Idle No More doing that?
By bringing to the forefront indigenous models that are important. Like government relationships between the federal system and the tribal system,involving tribes all across the western hemisphere, in Idle No More demonstrations. From the historical trauma perspective, Idle No More is very much about finding ways to release the pain of historical trauma and healing from historical trauma.. From someone who is very much an advocate of the historical trauma model, I watch it with great interest and a lot of support: Native people across the Western Hemispere carrying out their work to create a better life for themselves.
I think Idle No More is a really good example of a compassionate revolution. The idle no more movement is very much about non-violent demonstration. I think it's a very compassionate approach. The revolution theme is that it affects everyone's lives, Native and non-Native, because of the damage to the environment.
How can non-Native allies help to heal the historical trauma that is so much a part of this continent?
By understanding and disseminating how we understand historical trauma's impact, how historical trauma has created pain, tremendous pain, and has impacted the lives of us today, our relationships with each other and also how we can repair those relationships together to create a good life with each other. I think when we get more and more people grounded that way, regardless of ethnicity, I think we all begin to create a better world for ourselves.”
People do it from their spirit, from their heart. They just kind of take care of themselves that way. That's the first way we model healing historical trauma.
(For more information, see Ray Daw's Historical Trauma Facebook Page)
