ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impact of postcolonial trauma and the role of memory as the basis of decolonizing social work. The confluence of the nation-state, modern systems of knowledge, and the extractive economy homogenized strategies and techniques of domination over diverse peoples across the globe. Settler colonialism is not only an ideological structure but also has a material power base in extractive capitalism. Historical trauma has been defined as cumulative and collective trauma that produces psychological and emotional suffering in individuals and communities. The chapter reviews the burgeoning field of trauma studies in social work literature and explores how postcolonial trauma continues to resonate down through the generations at a high cost to individuals and communities. Historical unresolved grief can emerge in the wake of historical trauma due to multiple, rapid community losses through genocide, land theft, and cultural erasure. The inability to mourn and manage grief in culturally and spiritually appropriate ways due to the suppression of Indigenous practices can intensify unresolved grief. Memory work is introduced as a practice of speaking truth and remembering as healing acts.
