A personal blog-video by Sandi L Boucher (Red Thunderbolt, Loon clan, Seine River First Nation) dated July 25 titled 'I don't forgive you.' Boucher addresses non-Indigenous Canadians, urging them to be trauma-informed about Indigenous peoples' intergenerational and ongoing harms, explains distrust as a survival mechanism, and argues reconciliation asks too much of Indigenous people to 'make amends with our abusers.' She calls for trauma-informed care and partnership from non-Indigenous people.
Chapters
Bonjour. Mishko Paganan Kwei Nadishnikas Mundo Dam. Hello again everyone. Sandy Boucher here. 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 yesterday I promised you a week of hard hitting personal blog posts. So today the July 25 entry is called Knocking things on the floor. Here it's oh, it's called I don't forgive you. And again, this is a call out to the non Indigenous Canadians to understand. If you understand that people got hurt, if you understand that people are still attempting to heal at whatever age and stage with whatever supports they can find and often they can't. If you understand that, then you should not be surprised. I'm going to repeat that you should not be surprised if an Indigenous person doesn't want to work with you or doesn't want to trust you. And I can hear the crowd because I say this in seminar and I hear it like what? But I'm a trustworthy person. I didn't do anything. Go to my YouTube channel and watch the opening video about Indigenous non Indigenous being tied together. We are tied together by connecting Canadian history. And it was your ancestors that inflicted the pain. So I'm sorry it's survival mechanisms we have had to learn not to trust non Indigenous just to try to survive. And some of us have healed enough and had enough supports that we're willing to try. But that is what reconciliation is asking of Indigenous people. To make amends with our abusers, with our oppressors. So if you think as a non Indigenous person that reconciliation is hard and confusing and scary, try it from our side of the fence. In this blog post I center on the phrase trauma informed care, caring for people and understand being trauma informed, understanding the traumas they've endured and the results that you may very well see in front of you. Honestly, my point in this blog post, I think every non Indigenous Canadian should be trauma informed and provide trauma informed support and partnership and care for all Indigenous people they work with. We deserve that. We've suffered enough. I hope that makes sense. Would love to hear what you think. Comment below. I love you. Until tomorrow. Bye bye.
