Many times I have heard non-Indigenous people say that they wish Indigenous people would "just get over it." Just get over all this talk about residential schools and financial payments from the government, and just move on with life. Most of the people who say this already have an established career, or sense of stability in their lives. These aren't people who are necessarily well off financially, but they have managed to make strides with their homes and their jobs and their health in general. They obviously still have their own difficulties like anyone, but they are productive citizens and members of their families.
I am not saying my own people are not productive and stable, but the reality is that statistically, Indigenous people have the highest rates of health care problems, addictions, incarceration, lower education, involvement with child welfare, suicide, and mortality rates. This is not my opinion or the opinion of a non-indigenous person; it is a statistical fact and has been for years. I have seen many fellow Indigenous people who are very stable and own homes in a variety of professions.
There are four levels of awareness of the conditions of people around us. They are apathy, sympathy, empathy and interpathy. Apathy looks at a person and has no concern for that person. Sympathy looks at a person and says that this person needs help-they don't think they should necessarily be the one to reach out to help, but someone should. Empathy says that they should be the one to help, and then they reach out and help in some small way. Interpathy is more of a "walking in your shoes" type of connection with other people.
Jesus was always the interpathy type of person-walking in the pathway of others and eating and hanging out with them. This is the hardest type of awareness and connection with another person, no matter who they are on the social, ethnic or cultural scale. It is always easier to judge someone from a distance. Many times when we judge. we have never had to go through what the other person is going through. We just think we know what the solutions are for them.
According to a 2016 survey on Canada's public opinion on Aboriginal people, males who have higher incomes are less likely to want to understand Aboriginal people-not males who necessarily have a higher education, but males who have higher incomes.
To me this says that my fellow males believe that hard work and a great work ethic will win the day. Yet, they don't realize the depth and vicious cycle of intergenerational trauma. Canada has had 400 years to colonize Indigenous peoples and have had eight generations go through residential schools. This dilemma we have here is Canada, and the solutions are complex, and will take years to unravel.
Many Indigenous people are trying to "get over it," but many have deep scars, and many don't even know that they are going through intergenerational trauma. Intergenerational trauma is a disease that had infected Indigenous people spreading like a virus. Intergenerational trauma is contagious and has spread already. There are so many complex issues that the average Canadian citizen isn't aware of. If someone who has cancer knows that chemotherapy and radiation will help him or her, that person will seek help. In the process of this treatment some of these people will be cancer free for ten or more years, or some for good. Some cancer patients will be cancer free for two, or five years, and go in and out of remission. Yet, some will not recover and die a premature death.
The same is true for people with intergenerational trauma. Some will seek help and move forward with their lives and be very productive. Some will seek help and go in and out of times of progress. Yet, some will die a premature death because of addiction, suicide, or poor health problems. We only see what is on the surface.
When I have studied the worldview of any given people, I have been taught that someone's worldview is like an iceberg. An iceberg has a tip that shows on the surface of the water, but beneath an iceberg lies a much larger picture of that structure. With a person's worldview there are unseen aspects that we don't understand. So, Indigenous people have a difference in worldview and regarding intergenerational trauma. This leaves many unseen factors as to why an Indigenous person may be struggling with certain issues in life. There is no "one size fits all" mentality to understanding anyone, let alone Indigenous people.
It is easy to judge someone without thinking about what is really going on. Romans 2:1 (NLT) says, "You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things."
Jesus also talked about when you look at someone with lust you have already committed sin. He also said that when you hate someone that is the same as murder. My point is that sin is sin and that in the eyes of Jesus having a certain thought in your head is the same as doing that act.
In the eyes of the legal courts, this is not the same. But we are not supposed to be the same as the world. We are supposed to be held to a higher standard. Jesus and His kingdom were not of this world; it was a spiritual kingdom rooted in heaven. So, our thoughts and opinions of others, are also supposed to be thoughts rooted in heaven. Saying to someone that they don't want to be reminded anymore of the past says that the issues are unresolved. They resolve together to try and be agents of healing, rather than agents of suppression and of the uglier truths of our past.
Parry Stelter is an Indigenous member of Alexander First Nation. Member of Hope Christian Reformed Church in Edmonton. Founder of Word of Hope Ministries and Doctoral Candidate in Contextual Leadership through Providence Seminary and University
Visit his website at wordofhopeministries.ca
