Sandi L Boucher (Anishinaabe Kwe, Red Thunderbolt woman of the Loon clan, Seine River First Nation) discusses the role and value of dreams in Indigenous (Anishinaabe) teachings, arguing that dreams can be as meaningful as daytime experiences. She shares two personal dream anecdotes—a ceremonial-type dream confirming her loon clan spirit name, and a recent, emotionally tender dream visiting a mutual friend who is ill—and offers reflections on nightmares, recovery, and the importance of honoring dream visits.
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Good morning everybody, or good evening or good afternoon. Whenever you're watching this, the lighting looks a little different this morning. It's because it's 4:43 in the morning when I'm shooting this. The lighting is all artificial lighting because the sun hasn't come up yet. On this channel, we talk about all things Indigenous Canadian reconciliation. Sometimes that means I'm sharing practical advice and steps. Whether it's steps to empower my Indigenous fans, friends, followers, family, those even Indigenous I've never met, or I'm giving practical advice to non Indigenous people, how not to overstep, how to communicate, how to be a good ally. One of the things I touch on every now and then is our differences. The fact that engagement is sometimes compromised or challenging because we have different values or different ways of looking at things and how detrimental it is for someone to look at our culture and just decide it's less than. That's how we got in this mess in the first place. So I really encourage we stay away from that mindset. Today I wanted to talk about one of those areas that may or may not be different than the mainstream view, and that is dreams, their value and their interpretation. Let's talk about it. Hi. Oh, a fly flying right in my face. Oh, hi everybody. My name is Sandy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River first nation in Treaty 3 territory in Northern Ontario. And as mentioned in the opening today, I want to talk about dreams. Now, in some ways, and Indigenous cultures, traditions, teachings are looked down upon by some and in other ways and by other people, they're put on this pedestal that they're awe inspiring and they're so much better. And realistically, neither apply. Both apply. I don't know, it's. It's just another way of being. And I don't think glorifying it or degrading it helps. It's just different. So depending on your background, if you're non Indigenous, depending on your cultural upbringing, the beliefs of those who raised you, you may or may not see value in dreams. Some people are very spiritual and very much lean on their dreams. Look to their dreams for meaning and direction. Other people just entirely dismiss them. Other people actually that fly is just going to be a pain. I can see this. Other people actually believe they don't dream because they don't remember them when they wake up. I am Anishinaabe Kwe. I am an Ojibwe female. And dreams have always been a huge part of my life. In line with my teachings, dreams are as valuable as your daytime experiences. There's this opinion out there that the dreams are always highly spiritual and involve our spirit animals and blah, blah, blah. And that may be the case. I can think of one dream way back when, 20, 30 years ago, when I first received my. Oh, God, it's probably longer than that, when I first received my spirit name. And in the dream, me and my brothers were in this marsh, you know, close to a small body of water. And the reeds and the marsh were huge, huge, way over our heads. We were like tiny little people in this reeds. And suddenly we heard this sound, this rustling, and the reeds parted and this huge loon stood over us, like, huge. And you know, in that split second, you're like, oh, my God. And then she just wrapped her wings around us. And it was one of the confirmations that I'm a member of the loon clan. So dreams can be that way, and other times they just are what they are. So I'm shooting this video at before 5am Because I just woke up from one of those dreams. Of the latter type. Yesterday I had the chance to meet up with a girlfriend. And it's one of those cases where I know her because of a mutual friend. We both have a friend who had introduced us, and we got to talk about that friend because unfortunately, that friend has been struggling with some serious health issues for quite a while, and still very much is. And we talked about the good times, and we talked about how much we appreciated her and. And how much a ball of energy and light she is. And it was hard to. To acknowledge her struggles. And I found myself, like, not wanting to wish that on anyone, not even my worst enemy. Not that I have enemies, but you know what I mean, that no one deserves the challenges she's facing. And I guess that applies to many, many health challenges. But last night, in my dreams, gonna attempt to do this without crying. I was visiting our mutual friend in her apartment. And in the dream, even though it was never said, she was preparing to leave. And over the course of the dream, different friends stopped by, and she would give them things like, I want you to have this. I want you to have this. There were so many beautiful conversations. Remember when we did this? Remember when so and so did this? We would laugh, we would talk. And in the quieter times when it was just her and I, we would laugh about events in the past. Evenings we shared together, outings with mutual friends, we shared together. She mentioned times when she was really thankful I was there. And Even other times that she wished I was because I'm known for being very direct in saying the thing that needs to be said, even if it could be uncomfortable. She mentioned a few times that she said, sandy, I wish you were there. And we got to talk about how much we appreciate each other and have enjoyed each other's company. And it was a long and beautiful visit and there were no tears. It was just a beautiful acceptance and a beautiful acknowledgment of an amazing friendship. The tears didn't start until I woke up and realized our visit was over. So I wanted to do this video this morning to acknowledge my dream, to acknowledge my friend, both the friend I got to see yesterday and the friend that we were thinking of. And I will reach out to her and I'll probably send her this video just so she knows she is so loved. Both of them are and so am I because I was gifted with the gift of such amazing friends. So I'm up before 5am There was no sense me staying in bed. I was not going back to sleep and in fact I didn't want to because just like with a great visit with a great friend in real life, I wanted to take the time to honor and cherish the visit with my friend in my dreams. I don't know what you think of your dreams. I would love to hear. I know some of us struggle with nightmares and I had night terrors for many, many years. Remember, I'm a 10 year domestic abuse survivor. I know what that's like. There is help. You can get help to get past that. Please don't accept that like I did. There are ways. But I hope you are blessed with amazing dreams and amazing visits from your loved ones. Passed on and still here because daytime is only one way we get to love our loved ones. I hope you appreciated this video. Until tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye bye.
