Breaking the Chains of OPPRESSION (and Colonization and Assimilation and and ...)

Hello, you absolutely amazing person, you. Welcome back to my slightly rearranged office. The sunlight can't get me here, so no manufactured halos anymore. We're just gonna stick to the topic at hand. And today I have a most interesting topic for you. Now, this is going to be vital for any indigenous people watching. I pray you can hear me. If you're non indigenous, but you have indigenous people you care about and love, please share this with them because this is everything. If you're non indigenous, this is going to be one of those cases where I just want you to sit in it and imagine. We've all heard the cliche walking a mile in someone's moccasins. Well, that's what I'm going to invite you to do today. Because today what I want you to imagine is imagine being born in a hostage situation. Your parents, your family members, your community is being held hostage. Maybe it's been invaded, whatever the case may be, but you are definitely not the people in power. Your parents do not have that power. I want you to imagine that you can't travel, you can't leave. Your actions where you go is incredibly restricted. If someone tells you to do something, you do not speak back because that is definitely not going to work well for you. Imagine that. Whether it's verbal or implied, everything in your world tells you you're less than. Either someone is telling you that to your face, who do you think you are? Or they're reprimanding their child for even being near you, for wanting to be your friend, or God forbid, dating you. Or when it's just implied, these are the people that pull their children away when you walk by or roll their eyes when you walk into a room. I want you to imagine what it would be like to live in that situation. And then ask yourself, for a person living in that situation, what would they believe about themselves? Now, I'd be willing to bet there's some of you that are going to say, well, I'd be very indignant and you're wrong and how dare you. You know what? That's coming definitely from a privileged mindset. To really understand, imagine that that hostage environment has gone on for your entire life. That everyone you know is in this situation, that everyone is powerless and looked on with disgust. You're not going to tend to break free of that because you don't know anything else. Welcome to the oppression of indigenous people. And today we're going to talk about how to break free. So let's talk about it. Hi everyone, my name is Andy 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 I mentioned in the opening, to be Indigenous born and living within Canadian borders is to experience that environment. Even if you have loving, caring parents, you can understand why that bank teller has a disgusting look on their face having to wait on you. Or the the one I've seen way too many times and watched my mom endure the cashier in the store that has to hand you change because this is long before debit cards and carefully drops the change because they don't want to touch you. The stereotype of the dirty indigenous person alive and well, that is oppression and I am living proof you can overcome that. But it takes conscious effort. You have to understand first and foremost as an indigenous person that you've been raised in and are living in this anti indigenous experience. Which means the messages you're getting are not true. That's the key to your freedom. But it's not enough just to know that. And by the way, I am not talking about the well you're wrong and n n n if you are acting and living in defiance of or to prove someone else wrong, they're still in charge of your life. What I'm talking about is literally have you heard that quote? Someone else's opinion of you doesn't matter. It's none of your business. That's what I'm talking about. Knowing you have value in even when everyone in the room doesn't see it. Knowing you have value and finding the people who believe in you. And I'm not talking about some boyfriend or girlfriend because that sets you up for an abusive relationship. I am talking about teachers, mentors who don't want to hurt you and never expect you to cross any lines. That happens way too often. This is going to be a self driven journey. Your journey is up to you. How far and how fast you paddle your canoe is up to you. But in line with the Medicine Wheel teachings, there is four areas that I want you to focus on. First and foremost, your spirituality. You were born spirit, right? Like where you were pure spirit until you were born. And you are not a mist. You are one of a kind. The combination of DNA and genes that make up you has never existed before. So quit trying to mimic other people and quit making excuses for yourself. You are not less than you are not the least of what you can be. Do not cop out on yourself even when the entire world wants you to. What I need you to do is find the spiritual guide, the mentors, the teachers that share with you empowering teachings. If their teachings make you feel stronger, that's a hint that maybe you're standing in the right place. Always keep. My mom would always say, creator gave you a brain, use it. Do not have, you know that blind faith in anyone. You keep your guard up and be aware. But indigenous teachings are incredibly empowering. Be careful. Some of our women's teachings have been colonized and they're very restrictive. Throw those out the window. Those are not the empowering teachings you need. So spirituality and by the way, if it means going to church and that works for you, all the power to you. I am not going to tell you that's wrong. But for many indigenous that doesn't work. Anything that's going to teach you, you know that you're less than stay clear of. So find your teachings. The first time I can remember this is such a horrific story and wasn't planning on sharing it when I first turned on this video camera. So when my ex husband and I got married and we had our first little girl, because I was raised Catholic, I just, I was on autopilot and that's where you got to be careful of. So I assumed I had to get my daughter baptized because that's what you do. I couldn't even imagine a world when you didn't do that. We were not practicing Catholics, we were not going to church. My husband was not a Catholic, but I insisted on getting my daughter baptized and we scheduled the date for that to happen. But anyone who knows my journey knows that we lost Fallon on her two month birthday. That she never lived long enough to be baptized. And what followed was I was 20 years old at the time. Just to put it in perspective, and I'll never forget it, the priest from the local Catholic church called me and informed me that Fallon wasn't going to get into heaven because she had never been baptized. And that that she was going to end up and stay in what was known as Purgatory. And that if I wanted her to get into heaven, I had to organize what's called a Mass of angels, get as many of my loved ones, friends and families to join us. And if we prayed hard enough and long enough, the doors of heaven would open and Fallon would be able to go in. I hope that sounded like a total bunch of baloney to you, but keep in mind I was a grieving, confused 20 year old woman who had just lost her child. I rescheduled the mass. We had the mass to the credit of my husband's family, who were not Catholic. They showed up, they followed me, they said all the prayers, they kneeled, they stood, they did whatever. And afterwards I was told that we were successful and that Fallon would be able to get into heaven. And that is the last time I had anything to do with the Catholic Church. I share that with you because what followed was this time period where I knew what I believed. I knew what I knew to be true. I just didn't have a name for it. There was no organized religion that fit what I believed. But at the time, I was volunteering at the board of directors, on the board of directors of our local Indigenous Friendship Center. And I went on a trip for them, representing them to Toronto, a large gathering of all these different Indigenous Friendship Centers. And on that very first day, at the end of the meetings, an Ojibwe elder came in and she was at the front of the room. I wish I remembered her name. I don't even really remember her face. But I will never forget her words because she shared some of her Anishinaabe teachings. And I'm sitting there and I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes. She was listing off everything I believed. Little did I know that my mom had passed on her teachings without ever announcing they were a teaching, because my mom was taught to be ashamed of those teachings. But she couldn't help who she was. And in those many conversations, as we did dishes together, she passed on her worldview to me. I left that meeting elated, knowing I had found my path, I had followed and found the red road. So that's what I'm talking about with spirituality. Do not doubt, do not believe that you don't know what you know yet. Just may need someone else to point it out. But trust in you. That is where the beginning of confidence and wisdom starts. That's spirituality. That's only one part of the medicine wheel. The next one. That one's going to take some time. The next one is going to take some work. And that's your emotional skills, your ability to process anger, process frustration, process grief, process loneliness. And here's the challenge, as if that wasn't challenging enough, the fact that you were raised in this hostage type environment that is Canada for Indigenous people, with all its restrictions and judgments and assimilation and colonization, there is a really good chance that the people that are raising you or that are your loved ones in your community, even your friends and fellow community members, there's a really good chance they have never learned healthy emotional responses. So the natural tendency is to mimic the people who raise us, mimic the people who mentor. Mentor us, our bosses, our friends. And that's intergenerational trauma and how we keep this going. The Internet is a wonderful thing. Books in the library are the wonderful thing. You have to sit on the step outside your band office to get free WI fi on your phone to be able to search the Internet. Because yes, that is a challenge in many remote communities. I want you to learn about emotional health and the ways to process grief and the ways to process anger. Because guess what? Remember the three natural human reactions to oppression. Violence is the first one. Anger is a natural reaction. Lashing out against people is not going to help you understanding what oppression is. We'll talk about that in another section. But learning coping skills and how to process this river of life in a healthy way means you can be the one that breaks the chain from the past and becomes an example for your loved ones of another way to do it. So that's spiritual and that's emotional. The next one, and this one I have so embraced in the last year, just this year, dabbled in it, before it, but now really into it. Your physical health. Nothing screams self care or nothing screams self respect more than self care. You are teaching the world how important you are by how well you take care of yourself. If you put yourself last, do not be surprised when everyone else does. As my mom would say, you are teaching them how to treat you. They've never met you before. Teach them how. Now again, you're fighting in an environment where everyone else is treating themselves like they're not worth anything. And it is so easy to stay oppressed, to do acquiescence, which is the second natural human reaction. To just give in, to eat the chips, to gain the weight, to accept that high blood pressure and diabetes are a given. Baloney. It's a reaction to the environment. And I want you to start treating you like a person of value. I want you to start treating you like a sacred child. The child you once were, the child you still are. So I want you to start eating as healthy as you can. I want you. You don't need a gym membership. Walking is free, right? I don't care if you're out fishing, you're hunting, all of that. If you are moving, you are honoring your body. Grab some water. Stay away from the Pepsi. I know I just peeved off a whole bunch of indigenous people, but it's true. Take care of you and you will be so thankful. At 60 years old, I think I'm now four or five weeks in of exercising every single day and I have never felt stronger and more confident. That's what I want for you. Last but not least. So we did spiritual, we did emotional, we did physical, now mental. This is not the mental health the mainstream talks about. This is your brain, your ability to learn. This is you getting on the wi fi and learning about what operations oppression is. Learning about what colonization is. Learning about the three natural human reactions to oppression. Understanding that your people are not less than what your experiences call what you are experiencing. Getting all up, worked up. Here is Canadian history because. And why am I so passionate about this? Remember the feather. The one side is the non indigenous in Canada and the other side is indigenous. No one's coming to save us. Not only do we have to heal ourselves, but equally as important as the healing is us remembering we have the ability to heal ourselves. Because I have a dream in Martin Luther King style. Martin Luther King Jr. I imagine a world where our First Nation communities are the safest place for us to be. Your First Nation community should be where you can go to recharge when mainstream gets insane. It should be the safest place for us women, for our men, for our youth, for our elders. And we are not there yet. I say it all the time in seminar. If I was to wave a magic wand and Canada started treating us like we treat ourselves or how we treat each other, would we be any better? And we wouldn't. Because so far not enough of us have broken that chain. I believe in you. I see your value even if you don't. Because guess what? One of the ways I got here is I found a whole bunch of people who believed in me even before I did. What I have achieved is not rare. I am not some superwoman, super intelligent. I was just determined. I realized at a very young age when stranger looked at my mom in disgust and looked at my dad with happiness because he was a white Frenchman. I was all the five or six watching that. And I realized at that age that the world could be wrong because they were wrong about my mom. And if people can't see your value, they're wrong about you too. So for the non indigenous watching this, maybe you have a little more understanding now. Don't judge us. It's one heck of a mountain we're trying to climb. If you're indigenous watching this, today's a great day to start working on breaking those chains. Until tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye bye.