Decolonizing Trauma Work ─ Indigenous Stories and Strategies

The premise of this book is that a "soul wound" of colonialism has visited trauma on indigenous people and that through stories and strategies grounded in an indigenous worldview, healing may take place. Author Linklater is both a member of Rainy River First Nations in Northwestern Ontario and the manager of Aboriginal Community Engagement in the Provincial Support Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. She starts the book with the line "This is a story." The author offers her story as one of many that are elements of healing work being done in indigenous communities. The book is structured around the author's story and the stories of ten other indigenous health practitioners. At the same time, as a PhD candidate, Linklater bases much of her thinking on research. These two strands--the grounding in an indigenous framework and working with academic research methods--weave together here. Nonetheless, the author states that she has written this book primarily for the use of community-based people. Distributed by Brunswick Books of Toronto, Canada. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)