Intimate Partner Violence and Intergenerational Trauma Among Indigenous Women

• Author: Nicholas A. Jones,Renée Hoffart
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567717719966
• Date: 01 March 2018
• Published date: 01 March 2018
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Intimate Partner Violence

and Intergenerational Trauma

Among Indigenous Women

Rene

´e Hoffart

1

and Nicholas A. Jones

1

Abstract

The establishment of the Indian Residential Schools by the Canadian federal government to

assimilate indigenous peoples to European and Christian ideals has had generational repercussions

on Canada’s indigenous peoples. Many emotional, physical, and sexual abuses occurred within these

schools resulting in significant trauma within this population. In order to shed light on these impacts,

indigenous women were interviewed about their experiences with these schools. Thematic network

analysis was used to analyze the data, and a number of themes emerged, including identifying the

relationships between residential schools, intergenerational trauma, and the normalization of inti-

mate partner violence (IPV) in domestic relationships. The findings add to the existing discourse on

IPV in indigenous populations and may be used to inform violence reduction strategies.

Keywords

residential schools, intergenerational trauma, intimate partner violence, indigenous women

A growing number of scholars have undertaken research to further our understanding of the

impacts of intergenerational trauma on Canada’s indigenous peoples (Bombay, Matheson, &

Anisman, 2014; Elias et al., 2012; Miller, 2003; Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada,

2015). Researchers have also made significant contributions to the study of intimate partner violence

(IPV; Artz, 2011; DeKeseredy & Dragiewicz, 2014; Gosselin, 2014). Brownridge (2003) reports,

however, there is a dearth of empirical research exploring IPV within the context of intergenera-

tional trauma. The current research addresses that gap in the extant literature through a qualitative

study undertaken with indigenous women in Regina, Saskatchewan. The location of this study is

important because rates of IPV in this province are the highest in the nation and are over twice the

national rate (Burczycka & Conroy, 2017).

The assimilationist laws and policies of Canada’s federal government policies are rife with racist

undertones. Both the Indian Act (1876) and the establishment of Indian Residential Schools (here-

after residential schools), for example, contributed to the marginalizing of indigenous peoples by

1

University of Regina, Regina, SK, Canada

Corresponding Author:

Rene

´e Hoffart, University of Regina, Cl 343, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S 0A2.

Email: renee.hoffart@hotmail.com

International CriminalJustice Review

2018, Vol. 28(1) 25-44

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DOI: 10.1177/1057567717719966

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reducing their self-determination and suppressing their traditional culture, religions, and languages.

These efforts, in turn, had long-term negative consequences for these people and their descendants

(Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015) and altogether have been described as a

cultural genocide (McLachlin, 2015). It has been estimated there are about 80,000 survivors of the

residential school system alive today, although the descendants of these survivors have continued to

experience the effects caused by the disruptions to their parents and grandparents lives (Truth and

Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2017).

Miller (1996) describes the original relationship between indigenous people and the colonists as

one of cooperation. However, in the years immediately following the War of 1812, waves of British

and European immigrants were arriving and bringing with them their cultural values, economic and

political systems, and religions as well as notions of racial superiority (Truth and Reconciliation

Commission of Canada, 2015). These colonists believed their way of life was superior to that of

indigenous peoples and was summarized by R. Ross (2003, p. 142) as, “all things Aboriginal are

inferior at best and dangerous at worst.” The colonial leaders of the era believed that indigenous

peoples should be assimilated into this superior cultural milieu (Truth and Reconciliation Commis-

sion of Canada, 2015).

A series of political decisions reduced the self-determination of indigenous people andcontributed

to their marginalization. In 1876, for example,Parliament passed the Indian Act which designated the

federal government as having authority over indigenous people in Canada (Menzies,2010). The long-

term impacts of the Indian Act included disrupting indigenous family life, dividing the lands of

indigenous people into reserve settlements, creatinga series of laws including the “pass system” (that

required the permission of Indian agentsfor indigenous peoples to leave theirreserves). Moreover, the

Indian Act forbade participation in traditional religious and cultural practices and ultimately served as

a machine of cultural assimilation(Menzies, 2010). The Indian Act also paved the way forthe creation

and operation of the residential schools, which have had a long-term destructive impact on the health

and prosperity of this population and has shaped the involvement of indigenous people in the justice

system (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015).

This research seeks to address two primary research question s: (a) What is the relationship

between personal, familial, or caregiver attendance at an residential school and IPV against indi-

genous women? and (b) Does intergenerational trauma, associated with attendance at an residential

school, contribute to the normalization of IPV for indigenous women? This research is important

because the long-term negative impacts of colonial policies based on assimilation were also mir-

rored in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, and the long-term outcomes for indigenous

peoples in these countries are similar across these nations. Conse quently, the outcomes of this

research have implications beyond the borders of a single nation.

Residential Schools

Indigenous leaders had first expressed the need for the education of their peoples in 1807 during

the first treaty negotiations (Miller, 2003). However, the educational arrangements that emerged

after indigenous peoples were placed on their reserves were seen as ineffective in carrying out the

goal of cultural assimilation, and as a result, the federal government undertook the establishment of

the residential schools in 1883. While many indig enous children were educated on their home

reserves, about 150,000 students were placed in these residential schools between 1883 and 1996

(Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015). LeBeuf observed that “the schools were

meant to become a home where children would see and understand the world through a European

system of values and beliefs” (2011, p. 2). In 1920, the Deputy Superintendent General of Indians

Affairs, Duncan Campbell Scott, referred to the residential schools as a method of eradicating the

“Indian problem” (Erasmus, 2004, p. 3).

26 International Criminal Justice Review 28(1)