Assimilation - Let's Talk About It! (TRIGGER WARNING!)

Hello, you absolutely amazing person, you. I realized something a little while ago when I decided to do this video. I realized that if you've been watching my videos, if you've been on my channel for any length of time, you have probably heard me use the word assimilation. But what if you're not sure of what that is or you're not sure of the context that I'm using it in? That's not the way to build the bridge. So I want to reinforce that, that structure, the part of the bridge by making sure we're all on the same page when it comes to assimilation. So let's talk about. Hi everybody. My name is Sandy 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 as mentioned today, I'm talking about assimilation or in the case of this channel, cultural assimilation, when one culture tries to make another culture be like them. So that's kind of layman's definition. We should probably start off with the formal definition that I have up on my other monitor here. So here it is. Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble the society's majority group or assimilates the values, behaviors and beliefs of another group, whether fully or partially. The different types of cultural assimilation include full assimilation and forced assimilation. In the case of Indigenous people in Canada, taking our children to the residential schools is an example of forced assimilation. The intent behind the residential school. Go ahead and look at the Sir John A. MacDonald quote again, was to assimilate these children so they wouldn't just be Indians who could read and write, that they would become like the non Indigenous. They wanted to sever and kill the Indian in the child, was the quote. So that's very much forced assimilation. But in my opinion, as an Indigenous woman in Canada, forced assimilation happens all the time where we are forced to do things in a mainstream way. And as I mentioned in a previous video, I think it was last week when we talked about Canadian systems education system and. And what else did I mention on there, the OH children's aid foster care system. Just not even acknowledging that Indigenous values and children and peoples are different from mainstream and taking zero effort or putting in zero effort to learn how to better serve us. So forcing us, if you were to hire an Indigenous person and force them to do things your way, that they are forced to assimilate into that culture of your office. Now, before, because I can hear some people screaming, not the people that follow my Channel. I will definitely give you that. Kudos to you for that. But I can definitely hear some trolls screaming that they live here. They should learn to assimilate. They should learn to do things our ways, which I hope you realize is absolutely ridiculous when it comes to speaking of indigenous peoples. Because if the settlers had adapted to our culture when they moved here, we wouldn't be having this discussion. I would not have this career. We would not have anything to reconcile. The point is they did not. In the words in my book of the path, I talked about respectful relocation, learning the customs and traditions of spirit, some place you're moving to so you can fit in. That's kind of standard if you're moving to a different country. That is not what the settlers did. If they had respectfully relocated, again, we would not be having this discussion. So where does assimilation take place? Well, I think probably the first place we encounter. Well, that's not true. The first place we would encounter it might be in our own homes, depending on who our parents are and how assimilated they've been and they've become over their life journey. Assimilation for many indigenous people was survival mechanisms. So it's not that they wanted to give up their culture. What they wanted to do was live and survive. So it might be in your very own home. If you make it past that hurdle, the next place you're going to run into assimilation is a hundred and ten percent in school, everything. And you can google it. There are so many, in my opinion, being indigenous, being Anishinaabe Kwei. There are so many heartbreaking stories of people where maybe it was their mom or their kokum, their grandma who made them, you know, know brand new moccasins to go to school with. But because moccasins are made with smoked hide, there's that smell to them, which we find very comforting. And youth being forced to take off their moccasins and put them out in the hallway because they stink, right? Having to learn English, proper English with no regard, actually being punished for using their language. And this is past the residential schools. Now we're talking in like public school system being forced to dress like the mainstream culture. The whole September 30th, the, the girl being shamed for wearing her, her bright shirt, right? Orange shirt day we just had January 4th was ribbon skirt day. And that since 2020, another young woman shamed for wearing a beautiful ribbon skirt. It's just on and on and on it goes. So the rule is any single time an indigenous person is being expected to act Like a non indigenous person. That's assimilation. That is continuing the harm. That is not reconciliation. Okay. We need to learn to swim in the water between the lanes. Not forcing indigenous to come into the mainstream lane. So we had at home distinct possibility. Distinct possibility. I can, and this is just an honest sharing, please don't judge. Sign of the times I can remember. How old would I have been? Dad had already passed away, so. So 17, 18. And there was this young man that lived in town that I thought was incredibly handsome. He invited me out on a date, which I was thrilled about. And I raced to tell my mom and her response was, you know he's Indian, right? She did not say it in a derogatory way, as in judging him from being Indian is the term she used Indigenous. What she was saying in that sentence is you realize people might have something to say about that. Even though I'm indigenous, not looking at passing people, not attacking me offhand until they find out I'm Indigenous, that by walking beside a man who was obviously indigenous, that that would come with its own challenges. And what she was asking me, are you ready for that? Like, have you considered that? And of course I said yes because my future career was already a seedling starting to grow. So at home education system next. I already mentioned earlier on the job site, whatever that job site might be. So that could be right up until. Up to and including, in my opinion, putting up with the Indian jokes or being expected to laugh at them and join in. Right. You got to be part of us. You got to do it our way. And I am not talking about the process of you're going to find this process because this is how we build this piece of machinery. Everyone has to follow that. But first, many indigenous people, they wouldn't want to be in a work environment that has a lot of alcohol, obviously because of what alcohol has done to our communities. So not all. There are some indigenous people that are happy to be in that environment. Again, like, we got to quit looking for these across the board rules. But smudging being in them, that was a huge one. For so long, Indigenous people not being allowed to smudge, which is a huge integral part of our traditional practices and healing for the people that smudge, for the nations that smudge. Again, that's assimilation. One of the examples I use in seminar is imagine you're a land developer and you build an apartment building. Do you build the apartment soundproof enough that an indigenous tenant could use their hand drums? Because that's part of our traditions and culture without disturbing the other tenants, if you didn't make it that soundproof. That's not reconciliation. That's part of the problem. Right? That's forcing us to give up who we are. That's gonna stop. Business interactions. I mentioned that. I'm from Treaty 3 and for many of our communities, if there's a death in the community, the community shuts down. And everyone that would work in the band office, whatever the case may be, changes their focus to focus on supporting the grieving family. Which means meetings are canceled, training sessions are canceled. Mainstream can get really super upset about that. And some have gone as far as, you know, wanting to demand that that meaning has to happen. Not only is that horribly disrespectful, which assimilation is, but it's a perfect example of assimilation. And now you're actually even expecting indigenous people to act like non indigenous people in their own communities, like so far over the line. It's not even ridiculous government policy. It's constantly like they love supporting initiatives for like employment because mainstream values that. But where's the supports for the healing? We need to be able to get to the employment and to stay with the employment. So if it fits mainstream need, we want you to come this way. We want you to assimilate. And of course the commentary, whether it's in real life or on social media, just the stereotypes and why don't they. Just the judgment over the size of our families. I've mentioned in a previous video, the judgment over our long hair young men, older women, just on and on and on. The judgment because we're different. And if you're judging us for being different, what you're saying is you want us to be the same. That's assimilation. There are a hundred different examples for this video. I really want non indigenous to just observe and learn. Please keep your comments to yourself. For the indigenous, I would love to hear examples of assimilation that you've run into. Now this is for those non indigenous who just felt the need to get offended. This is an amazing learning opportunity for you. If you start seeing those comments from indigenous people and, and if they're disrespectful, I'm going to remove them. No one's attacking anyone on my page or channel. Don't worry about that. But you can hear firsthand experiences from people with lived experience of what assimilation is like. I can remember personal example to start this ball rol rolling way back when, like we're talking way back. I was in my 20s, my kids were like 5 and 7. I was working for the federal government and because I was making good money and I'm a single mom and I have two kids to support, so it made sense. I was working for Indigenous Affairs, Indian affairs back then. My intent was to learn from the inside out, find out how they operate so I could take it to the communities and help. That didn't work out very well. Anyways, at one point I had one. Oh, my phone's left on. Sorry about that. I had a supervisor actually tell me because I had missed a couple of days because my children were sick. And anyone who has more than one child knows the first one will get the flu. And just as soon as they get healthy, that's when the second one's gonna get sick. They don't do it at the same time. That would be too convenient. But I actually had a supervisor explain to me or tell me point blank that I was going to have to choose between my career and my kids, because that just can't keep happening. And it took me about not even a quarter of a second to look her in the face and say, that's easy. I choose my kids. And I walked out. Luckily, the supervisor, her supervisor realized how far out of line that comment was and how that could actually cause problems for the department. So he did some major backtracking and. And followed me as I walked out the door. So. Assimilation. We put our families first. Even over a job. Other people might have a problem with it. That's their problem. I want to hear the stories. I can't wait to see them. I will definitely be watching. Please be respectful. Don't attack. Let's hear those stories. And non indigenous, please watch and learn. I love you. Take care. Bye Bye.