Today I had the privilege of attending a webinar featuring Michael Yellow Bird on “Mindfulness and Mindful Decolonization” and for lack of a better expression, he blew my mind!
I have always been aware of generational trauma that Indigenous Peoples face due to colonization and residential schools, but I have never thought to obtain a deeper knowledge as to why and how this trauma takes place. I feel that I could go on forever reiterating everything that he explained about the human brain but I fear I would do it an injustice.
Overall, what I have taken away from this webinar is that generational trauma runs deep. It is not just a a sadness because of a loss of culture or language but it has actually been affecting the physical brains of the people who have had relatives or ancestors that were exposed to extreme trauma for many generations now. As a future educator I learned that there are authentic ways of healing such physical effects and that we can implement elements in our classrooms using traditional healing that can help all of our students fight their own trauma-induced anxiety or depression.
Such tips from today that I will be bringing into my classroom are as follows:
- making sure my students are getting their heart rates up prior to any deep learning, this is proven to improve their cognitive function
- pre-assess my students’ well-being through ensuring they have run, danced, sang, and slept
My biggest take away from today is that our students’ mental and physical health goes so far beyond the obvious, and that Eurocentrism has taught us only the basic fundamentals of how to help our students. Singing and dancing can heal our students in ways that extend beyond having fun, and genuine sleep and healthy diets heal their minds as much as they do their bodies.
I still feel like this blog post is doing the webinar an injustice… yet still hours after attending I remain at a loss for words. Michael Yellow Bird opened my eyes and provided me incredible sight into the deeper reasoning behind generational trauma, and for that I am grateful because I now feel that much more confident in my abilities to be a great teacher for my students.