Causes of Mental Distress in the Aboriginal Community

Aboriginal people, throughout their history, were never free of disease or social problems. It is believed that their mental health crisis in their community is caused by the imposition of European culture and loss of indigenous culture, lifestyle, and self-determination. The crisis is also associated with poverty, discrimination, and ongoing colonization of the First Nations communities in Canada. These issues began as early as the 16th century when European explorers and colonists introduced the indigenous population to infectious disease, warfare, and the active suppression of their culture and identity. They continued into the 1800s when many aboriginal cultural and religious practices were banned, and the people of their communities were viewed as unable or unready to participate in the government until they civilized like the rest of Canadian society. 
(McGill University, 2001)

 Figure 8. Aboriginal child living in poverty
Figure 8. Child poverty rampant among First Nations. 
Adapted from "CONs and Poor First Nation Child Welfare", 
(2012), The Winnipeg RAG Review, retrieved from http://
wpgragreview.blogspot.ca/2012/10/cons-poor-first-nation
-child-welfare.html. Reprinted without permission. 











Starting in 1879 and continuing for nearly a decade, the Canadian government mandated church-run boarding schools and forced out-of-community adoption of children by non-Aboriginal families. This abrupt separation from family, deprivation and brutality had a lasting impact on the First Nations population and denied them of their basic human right to transmit traditions and cultural identity. Since these incidents, the Canadian government has tried to reconcile and make up for the injustice towards these people, however, aboriginals are still evidently victims of government neglect. The distress, abuse, separation, and loss of identity in the community’s past is at the root of their mental health crisis, and the effects can still be seen in generations today.
(McGill University, 2001)
Figure 9. Aboriginal children in classroom of residential school
Figure 9. Class in penmanship at Reed Deer Indian School. 
Adapted from "To Break Residential Schools' Dark Legacy, 
Understand Why", by K Ward, (2013), The Tyee, retrieved from 
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2013/09/18/Break-Residential-Schools
-Dark-Legacy-Understand-Why/. Reprinted without permission. 

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