Decolonizing Trauma: Reclaiming Ancestral and Relational Knowledge

Trauma is often framed within Western frameworks that prioritize diagnosis, treatment, and individual recovery. While these approaches have their place, they often fail to address the larger systemic, historical, and relational dimensions of trauma. To truly heal, we need to move beyond these narrow views and embrace decolonial perspectives that centre ancestral and relational knowledge.

Decolonizing trauma means recognizing that much of what we experience as harm today is rooted in the ongoing legacies of colonialism. Colonial systems severed relationships—between people, cultures, and the land—while imposing worldviews that prioritize hierarchy, control, and extraction. Healing, in this context, isn’t just about addressing individual wounds; it’s about reclaiming the interconnected ways of knowing and being that have been suppressed by colonial frameworks.

The Role of Ancestral Knowledge in Healing

Ancestral knowledge offers an alternative to the dominant ways of understanding trauma. Indigenous and relational worldviews often see trauma not as a personal failing but as a disruption in relationships—between oneself, the community, and the land. These perspectives emphasize the importance of collective care, rituals, and reciprocal relationships in the healing process.

For example, many Indigenous traditions approach healing as a community endeavour, involving ceremonies and practices that honour the interconnectedness of all life. These practices don’t just focus on the individual; they aim to restore balance within the entire relational web, including the land, ancestors, and future generations. Reclaiming these approaches allows us to move beyond the isolation of Western trauma models and embrace a more holistic understanding of healing.

Relational Knowledge as a Pathway to Connection

Relational knowledge reminds us that healing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It occurs in relationships—with others, with the land, and with our histories. Decolonizing trauma requires us to rebuild these connections, to recognize that our well-being is tied to the well-being of the Earth and the communities around us.

This approach also challenges the dominant ontology, which frames trauma as an individual problem to be solved through productivity or resilience. Relational perspectives instead ask: How are our relationships with the systems and environments we inhabit shaping our experiences of trauma? And how can repairing these relationships foster true healing?

An Invitation

What would it look like to embrace ancestral and relational knowledge in your own healing journey? How might your understanding of trauma shift if you saw it not as a personal burden but as a disruption in a larger web of connections? Decolonizing trauma is an act of reclamation—a way to honour the wisdom of those who came before us and imagine a future rooted in reciprocity and care.

I invite you to explore these questions, to reconnect with the relationships that sustain you, and to re-imagine healing as a shared and relational process. Together, we can create pathways to a more interconnected and just world.