First Peoples Worldwide � Social and Emotional Well-Being of First Peoples: How it’s different, why it’s important, and what’s being done about it

24.4.15

First Peoples Worldwide � Social and Emotional Well-Being of First Peoples: How it’s different, why it’s important, and what’s being done about it: The harrowing effects of European colonization, spanning from the 1500s onward, are well known. Encounters with European explorers fast-tracked Indigenous communities for cultural change, and the introduction of foreign diseases and stressors lead to a suppression of Indigenous cultures tantamount to genocide (The Mental Health of Aboriginal Peoples). Children in colonized countries were often taken from their parents and enrolled in boarding schools created to enforce “proper” European values on Indigenous children so that they were “deemed fit to participate in local government.” This continued in North America until the 1970s, however it is still an active example of trauma in Indigenous groups around the world.