Sandi L. Boucher (Red Thunderbolt woman, Loon clan, Seine River First Nation) critiques the tendency of Indigenous businesses and people on LinkedIn to adopt academic and corporate jargon (e.g., "procurement," "indigenous cultural competence," "logistical support") as a form of assimilation. She argues this pursuit often reflects seeking external validation—manifesting in relationships, education, or career advancement—rather than authentic self-worth and healing. Using personal anecdotes about her mother and past relationships, she urges Indigenous people to speak plainly, remain authentic, and reclaim inherent self-worth.
Chapters
So I'm gonna go on a little bit of a rant today. Just a little teeny tiny rant. And yeah, it's just something I see a lot of indigenous agencies and businesses doing now and it just drives me insane. I wish it wasn't happening. So I'm gonna comment on it. Do I think that's going to change anything? Well, press, probably not. I guess it depends who sees the video, but at least I can speak to it and get people thinking, right? So let's talk about it. I have hair tickling me. 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 as mentioned in the opening today, I've just been watching now I spend quite a bit of time on LinkedIn. If you're not familiar with it, you're probably not in business. It is definitely the social media networking platform for B2B business to business interactions, networking, all that fun stuff. Met a lot of amazing people on LinkedIn and I love that Lately I'm seeing, because when someone posts, you see their name and you see their job title and I am seeing so many more indigenous businesses represented in the conversations and I absolutely love that. But and 90% of the time when I go that high, probably not 70% of the time when I see like an indigenous business or indigenous person identifying themselves, I want to find out more. I want to find out, you know, where they are. Like it's encouraging each other. So I'll often go and check out their profile and that's where I start to see these things. So here's some of the phrases or wording that I start to see in their little profile. Description. Procurement. Look it up if you don't know what it means. I had to at one point. Indigenous cultural competence, Logistical support, facilities management, cultural competencies. If there's one thing I preach on a regular basis, it's that conversational English is how we build bridges because we have to build relationships. That's what the bridge is, is the relationship. And when this is going to sound blunt and horrible and awful and Red Thunderbolt, woman, rent, whatever, but when I see see that type of phrasing on an indigenous person's profile, the only thing that I think is yay, good on you, you have been assimilated. Yay good on you, you've mastered speaking white. Who in their right mind uses those phrases in common everyday conversation? You don't, unless you're talking to colleagues in that industry. Now, one thing that just came to my mind, if there's something I've been speaking a lot to lately, it's the fact that marginalized people, so people that are pushed up, pushed off to the margins or weighed down yet end up in this trap where you're looking for validation, external validation. And there seems to be three key areas where marginalized indigenous peoples look for that validation. The first one is in, in no particular order, there's just three of them. The first one is in your relationship. If you can find someone to tell you you're worthy, that you're worth time and effort, then you can start to believe it. As a 10 year domestic abuse survivor, I can tell you if you're looking for your value in the hands of someone else, that's a dangerous combination. That is not where you find self worth. So you seek. And why do you look at the domestic violence numbers for indigenous women? Right? We. I swear, when you're doubting your value and you're looking for it in other people, there's like an alarm goes off and it attracts all of the people that are going to take advantage of that. So if that's you and that's the trap you've fallen into, no, the answer is not in that person. You need to build your worth. If you don't know how, you need to reach out to me. The second one I see a lot of now is educational validation. I'm going to get my master's, I'm going to get the PhD. I'm going to prove that I am, you know, worthy, that I have something to contribute, that I'm valuable. But these people so often don't do their healing. So they're still seeking external validation. They may have a master's, they're still engaging in lateral violence in the workplace. They're still, excuse me, passive aggressive or they don't know conflict resolution skills. They haven't done their healing. And the last one, closely related to the second one is career validation. I'm going to become the CEO. I'm going to become the executive director of a non profit. I'm going to prove to you that I have value. If you're still trying to prove your value to other people, you're still seeking external validation. You need the healing. And when I read these things, it's like I know what they're doing. They're trying to attract mainstream business. But assimilation is not the answer to do that, not the way to do that. In my humble opinion, my career, I am a success. Because I'm authentic. I am who I am. I work with CEOs and C suite people and. And they have the most incredible academic vocabularies. I don't need to speak like that them. And if we have to speak like mainstream to build bridges, then nothing has changed. So don't assimilate. Be who you are. If they can't understand that what the phrase building bridges means, you don't need to say indigenous cultural competencies, that that phrase drives me flipping bananas. But I know that is largely to do with the people in their realm, in their world, the people they're interacting with. Because you know what? My dad adored my mom, but my dad was French. My mom was an Anishinaabe. And because I did it myself, I'd be willing to bet that mom held herself back in so many ways because so many indigenous women are taught that subservience is safe, that having a voice and having an opinion can be physically dangerous, if not emotionally, spiritually dangerous. And I watched mom after my dad passed away, and she wasn't subservient anymore. Perhaps it's because she now had to run the house, or perhaps she now believes she didn't have to be anymore because there wasn't a non indigenous person in the room. Again, I want to reiterate. I don't believe this was a demand of my dad's, because I know in my case, in my subservient past, it wasn't the demand of my partner. It was something I autom a gear I automatically went into in a relationship. And it took so many years to stop shifting that gear. After my dad passed away, mom suddenly had opinions and shared her voice on things. And just. It was incredible to see she was suddenly confident. She suddenly knew her worth and was willing to share it. And as her daughter, I am so absolutely thrilled I got to see that because I needed to see that. Remember the video where I said the kids do what you do, not what you tell them to? I. I needed to see my mom come into her own. So then I knew I could. And I did. So again, it proves it, right? So my mom was pretty adamant when I went off to college. She. I think she feared that education would separate us because if you look at Canadian history, education was often the tool that tore Indigenous families apart from and for those seeking academic validation. I seen that time and time again. Unfortunately, I have friends that I barely understand when they say something because they are no longer speaking conversational English. They are speaking academic English. And that's not the language I speak, nor do I want to. My mom was adamant that no matter how educated you get, that you always speak like you're talking to your grandma. And that's what I do in communities. It's why I can speak to youth and elders. And it's not. I'm not dumbing down who I am. I'm just not using 15 words to explain myself. You don't need to not. My mom would be the first to point out that if you're using words that other people can't understand, you're not even having a conversation. You're having an ego trip because you're the only one that can understand what you're saying. So speak so that everyone understands what you're saying. Speak you. Be you. Authenticity, not impression. Quit it with the external validation. Your value was gifted to you on the day you were born. And no one can take it away from you unless you give them the power to. So can we start being us and not trying to fit in? In fit in. Not trying to impress. Not trying to find validation in external hands. You are worth it. You always have been the only one that ever doubted. That was you. Till tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.
