Sandi L Boucher, from Seine River First Nation, explains why you should sit with teachings from elders instead of asking for quick answers. She shares advice from elder Freda McDonald and describes how deep contemplation builds real confidence and wisdom over time.
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Anyone who has followed my work for any length of time knows I'm a huge fan of empowerment. I'm my mother's daughter and she always said, teach them what they need to know to go on after you were gone. I always try to share information in seminar or in a video that you can use after the seminar or video is done. I don't want your dependence. I. I don't want you counting on me to help you. I will guide you and I will help you to believe in you. But there's something you got to do to help yourself. Let's talk about it. 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. And today I'm talking about going deep. Now, I'm not going to spend a lot of time explaining that because today I'm actually doing something different in that I'm actually attaching an older video where I explain this concept of going deep. And the idea that my elder told me that's what I have to teach you to do. The whole idea is in non indigenous culture, you're taught stay at a superficial level. The manual means exactly what it says, the law means exactly what it says. And that totally makes sense. In non indigenous culture, that's how you function. But when it comes to indigenous culture, when we hear an elder or a colleague or a co worker share that first interpretation of what they said is nothing compared to what we will receive when we contemplate it, when we dare to go deep. The problem is with non indigenous people, you've been taught to ask questions right away. I don't understand, what does that mean? Please describe it to me. That's not going deep. That's being dependent on someone else to explain it to you. And what I tried to encourage people to do for the last 14 years is believe in yourself more and give yourself time to contemplate it. Because I guarantee you, in 24 hours, 48 hours, a week's time, you'll be.
Like, oh, wow, I never even realized.
That that makes sense. That's what she meant. So the question for today is, as you've been watching my videos, if this is the first one, I hope you get a great lesson right up front. But if you've watched other videos, did you go deep? Did you take it just at face value or did you contemplate it for a while? And I hope you answered yes to the latter option. I hope you have been going Deep. And if not, well, now's a perfect time to start. And the next time you engage with an indigenous person or community, whether you're indigenous or not, please remember, for your sake, the sake of your wisdom and your confidence, always take the time to go deep. Here's that older video I talked about. Until tomorrow.
I love you. Take care.
Bye. Bye.
A few months ago, if it's even that long ago, I think maybe a month ago, we lost an incredible elder in this area. Frieda McDonald was a godsend. She was. Was such an incredibly beautiful soul. And I had the honor of laughing with her and giggling with her every time we met up. And I thought of her this morning on my journey, because when I wrote my first book, I guess I was kind of naive. I assumed that everyone reading it would go deeper, that they would contemplate the stories and. And take value from it. They would relay it to their own lives rather than just reading it as a story. And after a few years, I started to realize that way too many of the people that had purchased my books were not doing that. I offered tobacco to Frida to ask for her advice, and I explained to her that I was concerned and so many of them were not getting the full value of this book or either of the books because no one had taught them what we did. Naturally, that going deeper. And in true elder wisdom, be careful when you ask elders for advice with true wisdom. And in true Frida style, she just smiled and looked at me and said.
Well, I guess you're going to have to teach them how to do it then.
We lost Freda a little while ago, as I mentioned, and do not think that was lost on me. It's something I will definitely be passing on. And later this week, I'll even share with you information on a seminar that I do that helps pass on that teaching. And yes, I focus primarily on indigenous people, but I'm open to sharing that with anyone. We all need to know and realize and take comfort from the fact that we're not doing this alone and we're gonna be okay. We gotta quit trying to do it on our own. We have to look and listen for the messages. So I hope that made sense to you. Sign up to get my blog post, because I'll be expanding on this in tomorrow morning's blog post. It comes out every Monday morning, and then on Wednesday an email goes out sharing with you which seminar reinforces the.
Teaching of the week.
And all of my seminars are available.
For your community agency or even through personal coaching.
So keep that in mind. If it's something you truly need, we can make that happen. So I hope you have an absolutely amazing week. I have laundry and packing to do, but I am definitely looking forward to whatever creator sends my way next. Have an amazing day. I love you. Bye. Bye.
