14.6 Generational Trauma and Resilience
Aimee Krouskop
Our sense of purpose and meaning can become amplified as a result of loss. For example, many of us have experienced the death of a loved one. After they are gone, we can gain a more immediate, broader understanding of what that person means to us. Often, we also receive sharper insights regarding the purpose of that relationship. We can also see meaning and purpose expand with loss if we examine family groups and their communities.
This section introduces meaning and purpose at the intersection of loss and equity. In Chapter 2, we discussed how understanding the diversity of family experiences includes developing awareness of the disproportionate ways they experience social problems. In addition, it includes paying attention to themes of social justice. Those themes include the unequal access families have to opportunity, care, and rights or the current and historical persecution experienced by groups.
For example, we discussed humans’ ability to create meaning while in life-threatening circumstances, as was acknowledged by existential psychology. Victor Frankl observed that prisoners who survived Auschwitz found ways of transcending their day-to-day survival. They were able to find meaning and purpose in life by maintaining a future goal, acknowledging their capacity to change themselves, and finding an ultimate purpose in loving others. Enslaved Black people fostered spirituality, creativity, and purpose to survive a system that, among other horrors, was designed to crush their spirit to create a compliant workforce. Through religion, gathering in churches, and a myriad of creative arts, they were able to create meaning and purpose as a part of their lives.
The stories below explore the similar human capacity to amplify a sense of meaning and purpose amidst severe loss. We’ll look specifically at experiences expressed by two Indigenous people in the United States. The first is the experience of Ku Stevens, a member of the Yerington Paiute Tribe of Nevada. The second is the experience of Marie Wilcox, a member of the Wukchumni tribe, native to California.
Indigenous peoples around the world have experienced devastation in the form of discrimination, racism, oppression, displacement from their lands, dissolution of their communities, and efforts to erase their cultures. These are all components of genocide, the deliberate destruction, in whole or in part, by a government or its agents of a racial, sexual, religious, tribal, or political minority. It can involve not only mass murder but also starvation, forced deportation, and political, economic, and biological subjugation (Jones, 2006).
The wounding from these experiences exists across generations and is acknowledged in a number of ways. Dr. Maria Yellowhorse Braveheart writes about historical trauma and defines it as the “cumulative emotional and psychological wounding across generations, including the lifespan, which emanates from massive