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Identity, Relationships, and Community as Antidotes for Historic and Race-Based Trauma: Lessons from Sikh and Indigenous Communities

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Abstract

Using two case studies, from a Midwestern Sikh immigrant community and from a Pacific Northwest Indigenous community, this paper argues that positive cultural and religious identities, relationships with immediate and extended family members, connections with elderly in the community, and relationships with land, ancestors, nature, and spiritual elements are antidotes for historic and race-based trauma. Historic trauma passed on to subsequent generations is known as intergenerational trauma or secondary trauma. Compounded with racial discrimination and the perpetual stressors of alienation and disadvantage, intergenerational trauma has negative implications for the psychological and physical wellbeing of Indigenous and Sikh communities. Culturally appropriate prevention and intervention programs can build resilience in youth from underrepresented communities by fostering positive intersecting ethno-cultural identities, supporting family and community interactions, promoting civic engagement, revitalizing cultural ceremonies, and celebrating the religious and spiritual heritage of children and youth. This paper expands the work on historic and race-based trauma and their antidotes with these two underrepresented cultural and religious communities by examining additional protective factors beyond the existing models of resilience.

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  1. Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, 95521, USA

    Meenal Rana & Kishan Lara-Cooper

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Rana, M., Lara-Cooper, K. Identity, Relationships, and Community as Antidotes for Historic and Race-Based Trauma: Lessons from Sikh and Indigenous Communities. ADV RES SCI 2, 269–284 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42844-021-00050-w

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