Impact+of+Alcohol+on+Aboriginal+Communities

Alcoholism has had serious and devastating impacts on all aspects of the Aboriginal community. It has impacted on employment, family life and the identity of the Aboriginal community.

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=Employment:=

Alcohol use in the aboriginal population can be the cause of unemployment, but at the same time it can also occur as a result of unemployment. Alcohol use can cause individuals to be late or to miss work altogether and to work unsafely or have poor performance in general. All of this could result in dismissal. If an individual loses their job they may decide to drink (as a form of escapism), and the vicious cycle continues.

If an individual happens to be drinking on the job, this results in poor performance and possible injuries or even death on the job.

The long term effect of this cycle could result in a lack of motivation to find a good job and maintain a job which could lead to poverty down the road.

If one individual loses their job due to problem drinking, the whole aboriginal community is affected. Aboriginal workers may have a bad reputation and become stereotyped by employers. This then makes it harder for other individuals in the community to find good employment. Also, if someone is not working and has a family to support, the community is affected in that it has to help support that family.

=Family life:=

Deborah Chansonneuve (2007) shares a client’s story on how alcoholism has impacted her childhood. “My father was a chronic alcoholic. His parents had seven children and five died of alcoholism, including my father. My mom drank also and I started drinking at age eight. I was in and out of group homes and foster care and by the age of fifteen I was ordered to attend AA. I started on IV drugs at sixteen. Alcohol, drug addictions and sexual abuse were rampant everywhere when I was a kid and I don’t know anybody who escaped it. We were still living in tar paper shacks on the reserve and it was incredible, the poverty and isolation. I was only 15 to 18 months old when the sexual abuse started from my father and his brother. My father was charged for molesting two other girls but they still left me alone with him. Then the abuse continued from my stepfather and in foster homes. It didn’t stop until I was twelve but by the age of ten, I’d turned my first trick in Winnipeg. People have to know how this happened so it can be reversed and we can stop the pattern. They have to understand that this is an epidemic—this cycle of abuse of children and then they repeat that abuse to themselves through drugs and alcohol. Now I’m seeing it’s not just me but other people too and there’s tons of us who have lived this.”(p.9)

This story demonstrates that alcoholism impacts not only those immediately involved, but how the cycle continues for future generations in the aboriginal community. There is physical abuse, mental abuse and emotional abuse. There is abuse from parent to child, from sibling to sibling and spousal abuse. Broken families are a result of the addiction.

=Identity of Aboriginal Community:=

Alcoholism has affected the identity of the aboriginal community. One way it has affected their identity is through their reputation. The stigma of alcoholism has become a stereotype in the way outsiders sometimes look at the aboriginal community. Deborah Chansonneuve (2007) explains how the aboriginal peoples have been taught to view themselves as “savages” and “incapable of being responsible” (p.42). This view has become a common stereotype in society outside of the aboriginal community.

Another way that alcoholism has affected the aboriginal identity is that it is so prevalent that there is no room or effort made for cultural growth. Gerry Bellet of the Vancouver Sun (2011) recently reported “alcohol and drug abuse to be the biggest problem facing their community - well ahead of concerns about lack of adequate housing and unemployment.” Alcohol addiction takes over a person’s life and in-turn their family and community, therefore, it has pushed culture and traditional practices aside. In losing their cultural identity, the aboriginal peoples have had difficulty dealing with issues.