Sandi L Boucher, Anishinaabe/Ojibwe from Seine River First Nation, says non-Indigenous people often expect Indigenous teachings to apply to them. Real reconciliation means accepting that some teachings aren't for you and respecting Indigenous spaces as decolonized.
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Hello, everybody. Sandy Boucher here yet again. 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 told you this week was a week of revelations. Well, I saved the biggest one for last because holy moly's. This one blew me away. And like, I stay on top of my Facebook page. That's where my business started. Yes, of course I follow the comments on LinkedIn as well, but most of the activity is still on my Facebook page. And I have some dedicated souls that comment all the time and other newbies that come in and ask questions. And it's amazing. I love it. It's the dialogue that is needed in a decolonized space. So no threat to me, but we're actually walking together. And I love it. But now this blew my mind. And I have to be crystal clear here. Reminder. As an Anishinaabe kwe, as an Ojibwe female, I look at the world through an indigenous lens. I can't look at the world as a white person because that's not my experience. In the same way that non indigenous people will never see the world through indigenous eyes. I don't care how long you've lived in the community. I don't care if your family, for whatever reason, lived in the community. You're crossing the line. You're forgetting your humility. If you honestly think you can see through the eyes of another person, you can't. You just can't. And we got to get totally comfy with that. So as Anishinaabe Kwei, there's a point to me sharing this. Hang in there. As Anishinaabe Kwei, I went to a non indigenous school, and my mom always reminded me that these were not our teachings, that we could learn from non indigenous people, but that that was not our worldview. So she invited me to add to who I am, not change who I am. So I am quite used to. And even when I started my own business and started looking at marketing and sales, I would learn skills and take the ones that would work in an indigenous environment. And there's a whole bunch that don't that hard push sales. That doesn't fly in indigenous country, by the way. If you're a business, and that's news to you, you should be getting hold of me. Gonna save you from yourself there. But as I was watching the comments on my Facebook page, and I would share something and someone would comment, well, it's not like that for me. And I started Commenting. Yeah, but it wasn't about you. And then I realized, and this is the revelation part. Holy Moly's. As non Indigenous people in Canada are, you just used to always reading something that applies to you. Like, do you only read stuff that applies to you? Is this new for you? Because I've rarely like more in the last few years. Read something from an Indigenous worldview that totally resonated from my soul. In my soul. But that's rare, that's recent. Up until then it was okay white perspective. I could definitely learn from it. There's some value in there. But not speaking from my lens. And I watch the people on my page almost struggling when it doesn't apply to them. And that blew my mind. Because reconciliation requires that there's going to be things that don't apply to you. That Indigenous worldview, Indigenous teachings, Indigenous ways of being are. They have the space too. And that if you work with Indigenous people, you are going to have to get okay with hearing things that you can take some value from, but they don't apply to you. Does that make sense? I hope that makes sense. I don't know. Maybe it was as big of a revelation for you as it was for me. Because again, from my Indigenous lens, I read things every day that don't apply to me. But I can see the wisdom in them. I can see the point and I can take that. I can benefit from that. But I don't have to comment. Well, this doesn't apply to me. I know it doesn't. And you're in an Indigenous space on my page. If you're not Indigenous, learn from us. Don't expect it to apply to you. That's not being rude, that's being honest. That's how we got to walk together. That's how we maintain decolonized Indigenous spaces. That's how we put the feather together. I hope that made sense. Maybe it blew your mind too. I'd love to hear in the comments whether you're on my Facebook page or here on my YouTube channel. Hope you subscribed. Better yet, if you're in my membership and I didn't mention it all week, you realize you get these ahead of time. Like you get all the blog posts and all the Y videos, access to them before the week even starts so then you can revisit them and contemplate them for an entire week. I love my membership peeps. They will always get the best of what I have to offer. And I'm throwing things in the membership vault on a regular basis until Next week. I hope this has been an amazing journey for you. I know it has been for me. If you have comments, let me know. If there's something you'd love me to discuss, let me know. We're walking this path together after all. Take care of you. I love you. Bye bye.
Hello again, you amazing person, you. Sandy Boucher, once again cutting in on my own video to tell you all about my brand new all inclusive membership program. And seriously, if you like any part of my work, whether it's the blog posts and my writing style, my seminars, my speeches, my courses, you are going to want to be part of this. I mean, look. Look at everything it includes. It includes my 2023 blog post that I'm reviewing in this video. It includes all of the blog posts from 2022 that you can't get anywhere else. And the best part, look at this. You get to read whichever one you want in whatever order you want based on the day, based on the title. It's totally up to you.
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You check it off as read and come back as often as you want. Talk about honoring your path and you doing this your way. On top of that, the entire 52 steps to reconciliation video set is available in the membership. Again, the only place you can find it. And again, watch it in whatever order you want to. There's courses, the path, the path away from lateral violence, Mind missing pieces, and even a day that can change everything. That includes so many of the teachings that I live my life by. And if something comes up in your workplace, maybe you need to bop into one of my courses to review one of the lessons again. Watch them in the order that you need. And there's PDFs for you to download. This is everything I've got and it gets updated on a regular basis. And it doesn't affect how much you pay. So how much do you pay? Well, $19 a month. That's a lot of content for $19 a month there when you need it at your fingertips or pay the annual rate and you save any more, even more. And if you want it for your staff or group, well, I have a price for that too. I am here to support you in any way I can. And this membership fits the bill. I can't wait to see you in the all inclusive membership. Now back to the video.
