Sandi L Boucher, Anishinaabe from Seine River First Nation, outlines four steps for working respectfully with groups you don't belong to. Start with a focus group from that community, listen to their suggestions, and implement their recommendations. The core principle: nothing for us or about us without us.
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So today's question is, who are you trying to work with? Whether it's professionally or personally, who is it your children? Are they teenagers? Are they toddlers? Are you trying to work with, you know, you volunteer with a group from another culture or another financial level, whatever the case may be, who are you trying to work with? And an even important, even more important question, I can do English, honest, is do you have the perspective to help them? Let's talk about it. Hi, everybody. 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 today I wanted to talk about perspective. Remember the back to back teaching that I talked to you about? How my mom used to make me and my brother stand back to back in the middle of our living room and she'd get us each to look around the room and acknowledge that we could see so much of the room, but there was one part of the room we were totally blind to and that just happened to be the part in front of the other person. That's the power of diversity. That's why inclusion is so important. Because you will never see the whole picture. I don't care who you are. But if you talk to the person that has a different perspective, you share what you see and they share what they see, you now have a more full view of the situation, of the problem, whatever the case may be. When someone says to you, it doesn't look that way to me, listen, because they're about to share a different perspective with you. So, and I say this all the time, the phrase is nothing for us or about us without us. If you are working with elders and you're not an elder, you do not have the perspective to know what they need or want. If you are working with youth and you are not a youth, you do not have the perspective. If you are working with newcomers and you were not a newcomer yourself, you do not have the perspective. And if you're working with indigenous people and you are not indigenous, you do not have the perspective, period. So what you have to do there is actually a four step plan and it works every single time. And it takes so much pressure off you that you're going to love this. So the very first thing you need to do, say, we're going to use the example you're working with youth, okay, maybe even indigenous youth. We're going to get specific here. If you are planning an event for indigenous youth, you got to put together a focus group. 2 3, 4. Indigenous youth reach out to different communities, different indigenous agencies. Ask them for a name of someone that can help you by being a part of this focus group. Because you want to plan this event. Okay? So you put together your little focus group and then you ask them what would make this a great event. You can tell them like, I'm interested in housing for youth that come out of the community for school, or I'm interested in the violence that youth face. That's my mandate. So we want to do an event. What do you think that event should include? You ask them and then you grab a pen and paper or a flip chart and a marker and you start writing and you create this nice safe space and just let them talk. Don't interrupt and ask for clarity to make sure you heard them correctly. Remember, they have the perspective you don't. But let's don't argue, don't debate it. They know the answers, they can help you next. Help them find their answers. Like so. Well, I'm not sure what we would do. Well, okay, so if I did something like this, do you think that would be lame or conversational? English always helps, especially with youth, especially if it's cross cultural. So just give some examples. Well, what, have you ever been on another event? Was there something that happened that really inspired you or you think would you thought was really cool, you'd like to replicate? Help them find their answers. Don't give them answers, but help them find them next. Be willing to learn from them. Like if they say something, you're like, wow, I would have never thought of that. So why, why does that work? Like I'm, I'm curious. I want to learn. We all love an audience. They want to learn. So ask them. Give them their voices. Young youth today, across the board and especially indigenous youth, rarely feel like they have a voice. So you asking them to share and valuing their opinion is going to be the most amazing experience for them and you're going to get quality information with which to plan your event. That's a win win across the board. There nothing wrong with that. And then the most important thing is listen to them, do their suggestion. You might even want to recruit them to help you with actually pulling it together. Maybe give them, you know, they get free registration to attend the event, right? Maybe you can ask them to do an evaluation of the event, how they thought it turned out, whatever the case may be. But don't go back to your office and fine tune it. Don't go to your ego. Well, they suggested this, but I think this little tweak would be better because you do not have the perspective they gave you the answers. All you need to do is implement it and then enjoy the accolades from the youth for having put on an amazing event. And make sure to thank your focus group and name them and give them kudos because they are the ones that are going to help you succeed. The exact same four steps apply Whether you're working with elders, whether you're working with another culture, whatever the case may be, you are building bridges with the people in the focus group and they are going to help you reach out to all the other people you're trying to reach. Do not do it on your own. Just because it's your job description to do doesn't mean that you can't reach out and find guidance. And in fact if you don't, then you're setting yourself up to fail. Part the ego include get that inclusive view and then enjoy your success. I think this is an amazing way to wrap up the week. I hope it made sense. I hope you figured out how all of this ties into reconciliation. I didn't do my painting the picture inclusion this week, but I think you can figure out how this fits. If you have any questions, comment below or I am just an email away. As always, I hope you have a super duper double delicious weekend. No podcast this week. The new podcast is coming out soon, but I will see you on Monday with our next video. I love you. Take care. Bye Bye.
