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California PACEs Action

ACEs Within Tribal Communities

 

Mechuksus,

As I write this I am trying to overcome the taboo's within  California Tribal Communities that come along with  asking the ACE questions. Our traditional societies had very strict factors on what we talked about between male and female relationships as well as outside of the community unit.

Unless you work within the wellness realm or you have pursued your own healing many Tribal Communities are unaware of what  ACEs are. This is something that my family has pledged to change. My 15 year old daughter was sexually assaulted by a member of our community. She fought three solid years until there was a conviction. Meanwhile being blackballed and victim shamed. As well as shunned away from cultural events. On her journey to finding safety is when we were introduced to the ACEs test.

We had no idea until then that my cancer, diabetes, anxiety and other health factors that were impacting me at age 31 could all be linked back to my ACEs. We took a long hard look at the traumas my daughters had experienced  and they all scored 8s. We knew something had to change.

My daughter began her prevention awareness work and  stood up to a very toxic community action board and explained to them why ACEs education within Tribal communities is so important.

That for four generations we have been operating  in a survival state from our ancestors historical trauma. Meaning that four generations ago our grandma's were stolen from their communities as 10 year old children and taken to boarding schools robbed of their culture, family and their language. Our grandmother's communities adopted a sort of don't ask don't tell mentality to survive. They were to afraid of having their families torn apart so they stayed silent about the abuse that was done to them both from outsiders and people within our own communities.

When we  look at our ACEs scores and epigenetics we realize that we can no longer live in the mentality of just trying to survive. We have to create a dialogue where it is safe to talk about our child hood trauma.

http://www.spokesman.com/stori...man-in-seattle-surv/

When you look at the recent study of Native Women you begin to see the rate that ACEs effect Indigenous women specifically. 81.7% of the women in the study were raped before the age of 18. Can you imagine that living a community knowing that you were destined to be raped before the age of 18. We look at other studies or lack there of and see that four out of five Native women have experienced sexual violence https://indianlaw.org/issue/en...against-native-women.

This is why including Tribal communities in ACEs education is so important. We have the tools within our traditions and culture to help us prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences within our communities. A huge part of our resilience is who we are and where we come from and that in itself can foster change and undo our epigenetics on a cellular level. But first we must over come the taboo's of asking the questions about our ACEs and creating safe spaces to answer them.

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Thank you for sharing your stories, wisdom, and challenges.

Thank you for breaking taboos and sparking dialogue.

It is an honorβ€”and about time- that we hear your voice.

For the past 5 years I have been supporting grassroots leaders to prevent and heal from trauma and stress- individually and collectively. As I have been based in Nairobi, Kenya, most of my work has been in Eastern Africa. When we presented at the International Trauma Conference last year in the USA, multiple people approached us realizing that Global Trauma Project’s model of

Trauma-Informed Community Empowerment (TICE) is applicable to their communities as well.

It is a flexible, capacity-building framework that supports leaders to address trauma/stress within their communities. The transformation through 3 weeks of training and 6 weeks of mentorship is remarkable. I am happy to share some stories with you.

Though a partnership with Dr. Wendy D’Andrea’s Trauma and Affective Psycho-physiology Lab, we have been able to document body-based changes as well.

In Juba, South Sudan our participants experienced

  • 64% decrease in Post-Traumatic Stress symptoms,
  • 26% decrease in emotional dysregulation, and
  • 15% decrease in critical heart stress

We have already begun exploring partnerships with tribal communities (Rosebud and Winnebago) in the USA.

Would you like to know about our vision for Trauma-Informed Change Making (TICM)?

Please be in touch.

Our website is

www.globaltraumaproject.com

I am relocating back to the California in July, and therefore hope to establish connections and partnerships with others committed to transformative, community-led, trauma-informed initiatives.

Kind regards,

Anita

Oh.  My.  Gosh, Elizabeth. This is so tragic and such an eye opener as to the horrific harm historical trauma, silence, shame, and secrecy causes everyone.  Equally important is this statement, "A huge part of our resilience is who we are and where we come from and that in itself can foster change and undo our epigenetics on a cellular level." Thank you for sharing this.

Lisa

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