“How do you actually break the cycle?”: A Critical-Decolonial Analysis of Intergenerational Trauma and Cultural Relevancy in Nunavut’s Child Abuse Response

The dominant response to child abuse in Nunavut is through child protection interventions, a response that is complicated by the history of settler colonialism in Nunavut, current race-based inequities, and the prioritization of qallunaat (settler) knowledge and worldviews. Inuit make up approximately 85% of the population of Nunavut and are over-represented in what’s been called an “abuse epidemic”, with rates of child sexual abuse 11 to 15 times the national average. While policies and programming targeting the high rates of child abuse in Nunavut often make claims of being “trauma-informed” or “culturally appropriate”, these concepts are based in a settler-positivist worldview and often fail to account for the harm government systems have caused to Inuit families. This was examined in three chapters: narrative review of the critical and Indigenous theories of trauma and their application to the socio-cultural-historical context of Nunavut, a multi-method critical policy analysis of Surusinut Ikajuqtigiit (2020) Nunavut’s Child Abuse and Neglect Response Strategy, and a collaborative-experiential analysis of the stories of Inuit caregivers of children who have been abused. Colonial psychology theories tend to assume the universality of “trauma” and further a settler agenda through epistemic violence, problematization of responses to violence, necropolitical child protection policies, and dependency on the state. Child abuse response policy in Nunavut makes use of these tools, adopting psycho-centrism and maintaining race-based inequities. Combined with a lack of government accountability, these structural issues perpetuate intergenerational trauma while also denying Inuit self-determination. Inuit caregivers of children who have been abused shared their lived experience of these issues, voicing a need for holistic and accountable services that address the role of institutional violence in intergenerational trauma. These findings support the need to move beyond superficial understandings of “trauma” and “cultural relevancy”, and shift to frameworks that center intergenerational and systemic trauma, trauma-and-violence-informed care and cultural safety. The importance of culture is about more than “incorporating” Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit values into existing policy and practices, rather it must be used as a framework for reviving Inuit self-determination.

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