Sandi L. Boucher, Red Thunderbolt of Seine River First Nation, explains why holding space matters for Indigenous healing and Canadian reconciliation. She asks non-Indigenous people to give time and patience without judgment, and urges Indigenous people to stop lateral violence and support each other. Canada is still in healing and truth, not yet reconciliation.
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Okay. So if you're in any kind of social work or social justice work, if you do anything like that, Indigenous engagement, cross cultural relations, DEI work, there's a really good chance that you've come across the phrase holding space. I'm not sure you realize just how expensive that phrase is today. Let's talk about it. Hi, everybody, it's Sandy Boucher here once again. 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 we're going to talk about holding space. Because I think most of you understand that you know, a friend is hurting and you just sit next to them and you don't say anything and you don't try to fix the things, you're just with them. That is such a beautiful example of holding space. But when it comes to Indigenous, non Indigenous relations or Canadian reconciliation, holding space is key. Because we're really not at the reconciliation stage yet. We're still at the healing and truth stage. And holding space is essential for non Indigenous people. We really need you to hold space for Indigenous healing. And I know there's employers out there and you need so many employees and you really want us to get it together now and get in here and you don't really care if we need healing. Just could we please learn the skills to do the job? Emphasis on the phrase you really don't care. That's kind of all I needed from that sentence. That's not anyone. I want our Indigenous people working for that. No hard pass. No. We need you to hold space and trust that when we're ready, we will be ready. And if we're not, we don't need judgment, we don't need condemnation. We need more space and time equally as challenging Indigenous. Are you listening? We need to hold space for non Indigenous learning. One of my rules in my business has always been that I refuse to crucify someone for something they don't know that they've never been taught. And the Canadian government has been absolutely amazing at keeping Canadian history from non Indigenous Canadians. The fact that so many had never heard of the residential schools is not their fault. That was a well orchestrated intention of the Canadian government. So while we are expecting space to heal and grow and develop and learn, we need to be equally willing to give space and time to non Indigenous so they can learn. Picture that bridge I always talk about. Both of us are just at the edge, not even taking one step onto the bridge yet. But eventually we're going to meet in the middle as two empowered entities and then we will finally be able to work together and truly reconcile. We're not there yet. We're at the holding space stage. And by the way, indigenous, could you hold space for other indigenous please? That means the opposite of lateral violence. If your employer has yet to create a healthy work environment that might be because it's made up of a whole bunch of unhealthy people and that responsibility is on each employee, not just the bosses. If there's people in your community that aren't healing yet, aren't healthy yet, don't judge. That's part of the problem. Support and encourage and understand. That's holding space. If we could all get amazing at holding space we would be so much closer to dancing on that bridge together because the opposite is the problem. This has been one heck of a week. Let me know what you thought. Comment below. Have an amazing weekend and I'll see you next week. Take care. I love you. Bye bye. It.
