Survivor (sur•vi•vor) → a person who survives, especially a person remaining alive after an event in which others have died; the remainder of a group of people or things.
Sadly, this is the term used to describe the Aboriginal children who attended and lived through the residential school system. It also acknowledges the fact that so many children did not survive the aggressive attempts to assimilate Aboriginal peoples.
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Today, approximately 80,000 Survivors are alive and are living in silence with the negative effects such as internalized guilt, fear, anger, and grief resulting from the years of separation, abuse, and trauma that they experienced during their stay at residential schools.
These unresolved feelings can cause emotional trauma which often leads to self-destructive behaviors like substance abuse and/or addictions, self-harm, harm to others, dissociation (inability to feel), and risk-taking.
Survivors may also suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) which forces them to re-live the fear, helplessness, or horror of the traumatic events they may have experienced or witnessed during their time at residential school. In PTSD, sleep disturbances, hallucinations, or flash-backs are often triggered by anything associated with traumatic events (lighting, smell, sound, taste, and touch) and often lead to the Survivor re-living these events.
Unfortunately, due to the institutional nature of hospital settings, emotional triggers can be found around every corner and may include:
- Fluorescent lighting
- Foreign food/diet
- The smell of cleaning products/antiseptics (i.e. Javex)
- The invasive touch or procedures performed by strange and unfamiliar people
As Health Care Professionals working in a hospital setting, it is important for us to become aware of these triggers as awareness will help us understand the meaning behind negative and uncommon responses Aboriginal patients may have to what we believe is therapeutic treatment.
For further information regarding residential schools and personal accounts of survivors, check out these links:
Two-Eyed Seeing for Health 