Sandi L Boucher (Red Thunderbolt, Loon clan) explains how Indigenous decolonizing practices shape her video creation. She avoids batching content and rigid plans, updating materials right before filming based on what her audience needs. She works against standard production advice and pushes back on event managers demanding finalized slides weeks early.
Chapters
Hello again, you absolutely amazing person, you. It's Sandy Boucher here once again. And this week I want to try something different. And that's the point of this video. The fact that in probably 95% of my videos I start off by saying I'm trying something different this week. And it was actually my daughter who is the amazing person responsible for all the fantastic editing of these videos. She's the one that suggested I should probably just embrace that because I say it all the time. And when she said that, it helped me realize why it keeps happening. And that's what I want to explain to you today, the decolonizing practice that is playing into me trying something different every week. Let's talk about it. Sam. Bonjour. Mishko Paganan Kwei Nadishnikas mundodem 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 I'm a relationship and reconciliation consultant, trainer and public speaker. I'm trying to bring a country together. So I'm either working in First Nation communities, helping them to heal and remember the strength of our teachings, or I'm working with mainstream non Indigenous businesses and corporations, whether it's a hospital or a university, helping them to understand the nuances of Indigenous engagement and all of the stuff they've misinterpreted over the years. I love what I do and part of what I do are these videos every week. And that brings me, oh, by the way, did you notice I'm back in my Sun Room office? I love it. I also noticed my door frame needs to be desperately painted. The things you notice when you turn a camera on. Anyways, the fact that I start every video, most of my videos with, I think I'm going to do something different this week or I'm going to be doing something different this week. And when my daughter pointed out, you should probably just run with it, I realized that fits exactly into how I do my seminars. So to help you understand, I do a lot of seminars. It is literally how I started my career. A full day, six, seven hour seminar in a room full of people, 500, 700 people, or maybe 10 people, depending on where I am. If I'm in a First Nation community, usually a smaller audience, usually if I'm working with a hospital or university, usually a bigger crowd. What many people don't realize, even the people that have hired me in the past, is the fact that I do use a PowerPoint presentation. Don't groan. I realize a lot of people are visual learners. No, I'm not reading slides that would make me a God awful public speaking speaker. But I use imagery because I know if I put up an image that reinforces what I'm saying, it astronomically increases the chances of you remembering what I'm saying. And that is literally the point. So I use a PowerPoint, what I call framework. And here's the important part. Right up until the morning of the seminar or like a couple hours before, before I deliver it, I am updating the PowerPoint. I believe it is Creator telling me what the audience members need to hear. Remember, this is not about me. This is not an ego trip. It is about me supporting the people in the audience. So I will get an image in my mind or an idea or I'll think, oh, I should include that. And to me, that's Creator telling me, yep, there's going to be someone in the audience that needs to hear that. Now, 99% of the time I have no idea who the person is. That's okay. I trust Creator knows who's going to be there. Sometimes I do, because they will come up to me after the seminar and tell me that a certain part absolutely resonated with them. You'd be amazed how often it is some part I added at the last minute. Bottom line, it is never a cookie cutter seminar. If I did the exact same seminar for your group a year apart, it's going to be different. Why? You're different, I'm different. I am always going to offer you the most updated knowledge and teachings I have. Why would I not do that? So unfortunately, all of that may sound wonderful to you, but it also is incredibly frustrating to the event management people I work with because often they want a copy of my PowerPoint ahead of time. I just in case something goes wrong and 99% of the time they're not getting it. And I explain why I'm not being difficult or I will send them one explaining to them that is not going to be the one I use. That's just a really good backup. But I have it on my laptop. I have it saved to x number of USBs. It's no big deal. I hope you cannot hear the lawnmower outside, but. So what's my point? Why am I talking about seminars? When we started out talking about videos, guess what I realized? What video I shoot on any given day or week is done in the exact same way. Now, if you're into video creation and you take any kind of training. They're going to tell you that you should have a plan for your videos for the entire year. 52 videos in a row. That way you can shoot them all at once and get them out of the way and it's no stress. And I've done that. When I did my 52 steps to reconciliation, I knew the 52 steps. But problem one, it doesn't allow any room for you to react to current affairs and current events, which if there's something horrific or definitely impacting indigenous people, I want to be able to do that. And two, it leaves absolutely no room for Creator. That would be a hundred percent ego, me deciding what you need, rather than me leaning on Creator to share with me what you need. Now, in case you haven't figured it out, that's decolonization. That is me running my business in line with my indigenous teachings. Right up there with, I haven't used an alarm clock in years, that there's no clock in my boardroom because I don't believe conversations should be governed by the clock. And the fact that I don't have an annual video plan and I don't do cookie cutter seminars, the same one for everyone. And on top of that, I want to tweak it. If I know you're working in healthcare, well, that's going to be a different. Different examples, different stories, different than if I'm speaking to someone in higher education or municipal governance or first nations governance or federal governments, provincial, whatever the case may be. So that's why every single week I'm trying something different. Because I'm different, you're different. But Creator gave me a hint of what you might want to hear. So what do you think of that? Do you? There's a good chance you just think I'm insane. And that's okay, because I know it works for me. And for 16 years it has worked for the people I work with. I hope that makes sense to you. I would love to hear what you think of this crazy way I shoot videos. Until next week. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.
