Sandi L Boucher (Red Thunderbolt, Loon clan; Seine River First Nation) examines the Buffy Sainte-Marie controversy through Anishinaabe teachings, particularly Debwewin, which means truth. She argues for speaking only from lived experience and values authenticity over fabricated identity, using community dialogue to process what happened.
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Hello again and welcome back to my channel. Today as my unpacking and healing and processing and figuring out this whole Buffy Saint Marie Pretendium thing and what it means in my world, in the world of others, I came upon one of my teachings that. That I live and breathe every single day. But I realized this situation, this Buffy situation, had violated that teaching. And I think that's one of the reasons I felt it so strongly. The other thing I wanted to speak to today is all the comments on my channel, my new subscribers, and all of the comments and, and just some things I've done, maybe some other rules I live by. So let's talk about it. Bonjour. 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 the unpacking continues as it is for a lot of people. I know every now and then someone wants to comment and, and, and just seriously, some of you people commenting, like, do you ever ask yourself, is this going to help? Because that's definitely what I asked myself. Like, did they honestly think that was going to help? Some people are just snarky. I, I say a prayer for those people. Like, how ugly does your life have to be for you to be putting that kind of stuff out there? But 99.9% of the comments and all the new subscribers I've received, I see so appreciate it. I'm so enjoying the interactions. A few people have commented. I didn't realize because I really haven't been doing a lot on YouTube before, and I didn't realize you don't, like. Creators don't tend to comment back to the comments. And that's not how I operate. If someone's going to make a comment like, that's a conversation starting, right? And especially if it's an amazing comment or some of them have been compliments. And of course, I want. I acknowledge that my mom would reach down and slap me if I didn't. And then there's other people making incredibly valid points that I didn't see, you know, adding to my knowledge and wisdom. So appreciate that. Other people sharing their pain, their vulnerability, their confusion, that's healing together. I mean, I love it. I absolutely love it. Welcome to my kitchen table, as I said in the other video. And I love the, the dialogue. But one of the things I wanted to share today, I am Anishinaabe Quay, so I'm Ojibwe. And there are. I don't know if you've ever heard of the seven grandfather teachings. And not to be disrespectful, but I kind of always equate it to a Christian's Ten Commandments. For many, the seven grandfather teachings are really our guiding principles. And like things like humility and love and wisdom and bravery and just the challenge of living those every single day. And one of them I hold the most dear. I hold them all in high reverence. But is Deb Way Win. And that is truth. And I've always thought of it as like a deep personal truth. Not just factual, but your truth. Right? And actually what it is. I want to get this right, so I wrote it down. A little post it note here. Now get this. Keeping in mind all this Buffy stuff and everything that's just happened. The teaching of Debway Win is to speak only to the extent we have lived or experienced. To speak only to the extent we have lived or experienced. If there's one thing that is a given in my culture is one that we don't have the right to tell someone else's story. And the flip side of that is your power is found in sharing your story. And that's why I was saying that, oh, many, many times Gray Owl was mentioned. I actually watched a documentary on him. One of the people that commented on my channel shared a link with me. It was amazing. And I watched this documentary about Gray Owl's story. And yeah, he turned out to be an amazing, amazing conservation list and a pretendian. And I couldn't help thinking what a missed opportunity. He could have been the example of a non indigenous person who had grown to cherish and value the earth and the plants and the animals. And he didn't have to pretend to be indigenous to do that. He could have been the example of another way. The power would have been in his story, not in his pretend story. And. And I couldn't help thinking that. And the same with Buffy. I mean, I can't help thinking that she wanted to stand out, to have a successful career and she thought that was the way. And I'm sorry. Build your career on your talent. Build your career on your story. I have heard amazing flipping survival stories from non indigenous people. Struggle is not just an indigenous thing. And I learn from every one of those authentic stories. Fake is fake. Fake has no value. Fake you can't count on fake. Authenticity you can count on. So again, I think that's why this resonated so deeply with me. It. It violated dimwei when it's not how we're meant to live. And just a final thought on that. I truly believe everything happens for a reason. Even the bad stuff. Sometimes. Especially the bad stuff. And this whole situation is such an incredible example of the power and the need for authenticity. What's that saying? You don't have to have a good memory when you're speaking the truth, right? You don't have to remember the lies if you're being authentic. And I think that's maybe what had tripped her up quite a few times. Because her stories didn't match. I am always in the Schnabe Kwei. I am always a proud member of Seine River First Nation. And I am always just another human being on a journey trying to figure this out. My only requirement of me in line with my teachings is to be better who I than who I was yesterday. Not better than you. I cannot be better than you because you are you. I want to be better than who I was. And I have learned from this experience that is not a bad thing. I hope Buffy can say the same thing. I hope that resonated. I hope that made sense. So check this out, guys. This is this week and I got some powerhouse videos for you. These are the upcoming ones. I got content for you largely do to your encouragement and support. So make witch for that until tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.
