Short answer: they didn’t.

There’s a reason poverty levels are so high in indigenous communities.

Imagine if your grandad and grandma were taken as small children to join a religious sect that would beat them for mentioning Nova Scotia, the ocean, or speaking in an East Coast accent. Now, they’re proud Nova Scotians so they end up getting beat a lot.

Fast forward to their 16th birthday, they get kicked out into the real world, they’re no longer a proud Nova Scotian and they have the scars to prove it, but the only place they have to go back to is Nova Scotia. The place they were conditioned to hate about themselves. They’re gonna have a emotionally turbulent time. Trauma has a lasting impact on your ability to find stability, why do you think we have so many homeless veterans? It rewires you.

Personally, it happened to my grandparents. My parents grew up with nothing because their parents had too many screws loose to hold down meaningful work. My dad’s mother drank herself to death, unable to cope with any type of emotional burden. My mom’s grandfather is a pedophile, he abused others the same way the priests abused him. My parents had to build a foundation brand new, but with broken tools, in order to successfully raise me and my siblings.