"Colonization is such a personal process" : colonialism, internalized abuse, and healing in Lee Maracle's Daughters Are Forever
In Canada, almost everybody is familiar with stereotypes about ‘Native social dysfunction’. Canada’s present-day “Imaginary Indian” (Francis) is indeed associated with substance and welfare dependence as well as family violence and neglect. However, the mainstream tends not to wonder about the actua...
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ftcanadathes:oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/932 2023-05-15T16:16:57+02:00 "Colonization is such a personal process" : colonialism, internalized abuse, and healing in Lee Maracle's Daughters Are Forever Vranckx, Sylvie 2008-06-20T17:43:15Z http://hdl.handle.net/2429/932 eng eng University of British Columbia http://hdl.handle.net/2429/932 Lee Maracle Native Canadian fiction First Nations literature Trauma Intergenerational trauma Residential schools Child welfare system Healing Recovery Sto:lo Nation Electronic Thesis or Dissertation 2008 ftcanadathes 2014-03-30T00:44:08Z In Canada, almost everybody is familiar with stereotypes about ‘Native social dysfunction’. Canada’s present-day “Imaginary Indian” (Francis) is indeed associated with substance and welfare dependence as well as family violence and neglect. However, the mainstream tends not to wonder about the actual social suffering behind the image and about the causes of these supposed patterns. In Daughters Are Forever, the Sto:lo / Squamish writer and activist Lee Maracle deconstructs these racist clichés by emphasizing the impact of the colonial process on real-life Native populations. Through a Sto:lo social worker’s attempts to understand how colonial policies have affected Aboriginal motherhood, Maracle demonstrates the roots of Indigenous social ills in collective traumas inflicted over several centuries and transmitted intergenerationally. The conclusion of the protagonist, Marilyn, that “[c]olonization is such a personal process” (216) summarizes the ways in which collective trauma and cultural genocide largely condition individual traumas and grief. Her parallel journeys to help an Anishnaabe woman patient, prevent the abductions of Native Canadian children by mainstream welfare services, and mend her own toxic relationship with her daughters further demonstrate the interrelatedness of Indian policy, patriarchal institutions, and personal and familial spiritual illnesses. They also enable Maracle to show the dangerous ethnocentrism of mainstream psychology and the need to create cross-cultural methodologies and therapies appropriate to the diverse Native North American cultures. By depicting the “unresolved human dilemmas” (Preface 11) of Aboriginal characters, she strives to create social change by drawing her readers into her stories to shock them into awareness. Thesis First Nations Theses Canada/Thèses Canada (Library and Archives Canada) Canada Indian |
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Theses Canada/Thèses Canada (Library and Archives Canada) |
op_collection_id |
ftcanadathes |
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English |
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Lee Maracle Native Canadian fiction First Nations literature Trauma Intergenerational trauma Residential schools Child welfare system Healing Recovery Sto:lo Nation |
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Lee Maracle Native Canadian fiction First Nations literature Trauma Intergenerational trauma Residential schools Child welfare system Healing Recovery Sto:lo Nation Vranckx, Sylvie "Colonization is such a personal process" : colonialism, internalized abuse, and healing in Lee Maracle's Daughters Are Forever |
topic_facet |
Lee Maracle Native Canadian fiction First Nations literature Trauma Intergenerational trauma Residential schools Child welfare system Healing Recovery Sto:lo Nation |
description |
In Canada, almost everybody is familiar with stereotypes about ‘Native social dysfunction’. Canada’s present-day “Imaginary Indian” (Francis) is indeed associated with substance and welfare dependence as well as family violence and neglect. However, the mainstream tends not to wonder about the actual social suffering behind the image and about the causes of these supposed patterns. In Daughters Are Forever, the Sto:lo / Squamish writer and activist Lee Maracle deconstructs these racist clichés by emphasizing the impact of the colonial process on real-life Native populations. Through a Sto:lo social worker’s attempts to understand how colonial policies have affected Aboriginal motherhood, Maracle demonstrates the roots of Indigenous social ills in collective traumas inflicted over several centuries and transmitted intergenerationally. The conclusion of the protagonist, Marilyn, that “[c]olonization is such a personal process” (216) summarizes the ways in which collective trauma and cultural genocide largely condition individual traumas and grief. Her parallel journeys to help an Anishnaabe woman patient, prevent the abductions of Native Canadian children by mainstream welfare services, and mend her own toxic relationship with her daughters further demonstrate the interrelatedness of Indian policy, patriarchal institutions, and personal and familial spiritual illnesses. They also enable Maracle to show the dangerous ethnocentrism of mainstream psychology and the need to create cross-cultural methodologies and therapies appropriate to the diverse Native North American cultures. By depicting the “unresolved human dilemmas” (Preface 11) of Aboriginal characters, she strives to create social change by drawing her readers into her stories to shock them into awareness. |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Vranckx, Sylvie |
author_facet |
Vranckx, Sylvie |
author_sort |
Vranckx, Sylvie |
title |
"Colonization is such a personal process" : colonialism, internalized abuse, and healing in Lee Maracle's Daughters Are Forever |
title_short |
"Colonization is such a personal process" : colonialism, internalized abuse, and healing in Lee Maracle's Daughters Are Forever |
title_full |
"Colonization is such a personal process" : colonialism, internalized abuse, and healing in Lee Maracle's Daughters Are Forever |
title_fullStr |
"Colonization is such a personal process" : colonialism, internalized abuse, and healing in Lee Maracle's Daughters Are Forever |
title_full_unstemmed |
"Colonization is such a personal process" : colonialism, internalized abuse, and healing in Lee Maracle's Daughters Are Forever |
title_sort |
"colonization is such a personal process" : colonialism, internalized abuse, and healing in lee maracle's daughters are forever |
publisher |
University of British Columbia |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/932 |
geographic |
Canada Indian |
geographic_facet |
Canada Indian |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/932 |
_version_ |
1766002797942145024 |