Sandi L Boucher (Red Thunderbolt woman, Seine River First Nation) challenges viewers who claim not to care about politics, reconciliation, or oppression. She argues that apathy often means the current system benefits you, and calls people to confront that and engage anyway.
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Hello, you super duper double delicious person, you. Now, if you've followed my work for any length of time, you know I love me a good quote. I love that sentence or comment that stops me in my tracks. And just like, what? Yeah, sometimes those quotes unite us and sometimes they highlight the differences between us. Recently, I came across a quote that shed light on a pretty dark area, but I'm wondering if you would react the same way, especially if you happen to be non Indigenous. So let's talk about it. Bonjour. Hi, everybody. My name is Andy Boucher. I. 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 I have long used the comment that I can work with. I don't know, it's I don't care that scares me. The reality is, when it comes to Indigenous Canadian reconciliation, most of the time the problems are rooted in a lack of information or a lack of understanding of the information that's presented. Canada has. Well, for a lot of years, they didn't talk about the chapter, the Indigenous chapter. They didn't talk at residential schools. It wasn't that long ago that the official apology happened. Up to then, Canada was okay with people thinking we were just we, as in the Indigenous, were making it up. And I love my audiences because my audiences are made up of people who do care, who do want to understand, who do want to build bridges, who want to receive the information that was denied them. And I get to provide an Indigenous perspective, one that they haven't heard before, and help them build those bridges. It's no surprise that I absolutely love the work I do and I'm honored to work with the people I get to work with. But even me on my path, I run into people that just don't care. And I made a list because now I'm in my office, of course, I've got my handy dandy index cards. There's so many times, so many different arenas or topics where you may hear, I don't care. I have no interest. So there are people, I heard this one a lot recently, which kind of shocks me, surprises me. They have no interest in politics. You have no interest in who's going to be running your country or how that's going to affect you. To me, that's hardcore ostrich principle. Like, I, I don't know about you, but I'm all about coping skills. I don't like getting caught off guard. If there's a challenge coming, I want to know So I can prepare the. Not know, or pretending it just doesn't happen because it is going to affect me and those people who don't think it's going to. That's a scary delusion. So not interested in politics. I run into people that are not interested in reconciliation at all. What does that got to do with me? That's a government problem. That's an indigenous problem. It's got nothing to do with me. Which couldn't be further from the truth, by the way. Just saying. Not interested at all in any kind of policy initiatives, the latest thing that the government's trying to push through or the latest thing that the official opposition is arguing for or whatever. Not interested. Not interested in learning about internalized oppression or oppression. So not interested in learning what oppression looks like in modern times or. Or how it affects a person, how a person behaves when they've internalized that oppression. If you've been on my channel for any length of time, you know, I talk about that because it blew my mind when I found out about it. It explained so many decisions I made and so many actions I didn't take. And once I had the information, I was able to break those chains, which is why I am so adamant that every indigenous person needs to understand internalized STO depression. Why? Because you're suffering from it and it's limiting your options. But if you learn about it, you can break those chains. If I can do it, so can you. And last, but not least, just the people in general that have zero interest in changing how they do things, changing how they speak, the words they use. They have zero interest in learning new information or greater understanding. They want to stay in their ignorance. It's a chosen ignorance. So I hear all of those a hundred times. But I was cruising social media again, because I do that. But if I'm not watching a training video, I'm probably checking out what's going on on social media because I do want to stay on top of what's happening in my world now. Okay, Every now and then I dance into American politics only because we tend to replicate that crap. And what's going on down there. It's pretty flipping scary. And yes, we can see it replicating north of the border, but I digress. So there was a post that I came across, and it was talking about all these people saying they're not interested. And the person who posted it had a response to those people. And this was the mic drop. I was like. And I sat there and I read it and I read it And I read it and then I wrote it down and knew I had to do a video about it. So my question is, before I share the response with you, you gotta tell me if it's a mic drop moment for you. Did you like, wow, Was it that clarity? Did you agree or no or. Well, I guess if you're not interested, you're not watching this video, right? So these are to all the people. What was the list? Not interested in politics. Not interested in reconciliation. Not interested in any government policy or new initiatives. Not interested in understanding about oppression or internalized oppression. Not interested in changing or learning something new. The next time you run across someone who says they're not interested, here's the response. Of course not. You have no interest in learning because the current system serves you. Of course not. You have no interest in learning because the current system serves you. I sat back and I started thinking about the people that I hear not interested from. And all of the people that immediately came to mind were white men. Now, I'm definitely not saying all white men, so don't come at me with that. I do know some incredibly enlightened, woke understanding, educated people that would not fit that criteria. But they're also not the ones that would say, I'm not interested because they understand we're in this together, that there's two sides to this feather. And just because you're not being oppressed doesn't mean you don't benefit from the oppression. So you have no interest in learning because the current system serves you. I hope either, wow, yes, you agree or that quote makes you realize you got some unpacking to do, that maybe your vision is stopping right at the edge of people that look like you. And maybe it's time to start thinking of and caring about people who don't. I fight tooth and nail for everybody. We all should have a beautiful place to live and we should all be proud of this country. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm not there yet. But I'm fighting really hard to make sure I get there, along with a whole bunch of other people dying to hear your comments. Until tomorrow. I love you. Take care of. Bye. Bye.
