A short motivational video by Sandi L Boucher (Red Thunderbolt woman, Seine River First Nation) addressing oppression, internalized oppression, and anti-Indigenous racism. The speaker emphasizes Indigenous resilience, self-determination, self-education, entrepreneurship, and honoring ancestors — urging Indigenous viewers to stop accepting limiting narratives and take actions to succeed. Tone is encouraging and empowering.
Chapters
On this channel, I talk about oppression. I talk about internalized oppression. I talk about Indigenous racism, anti Indigenous racism, and I talk about the fact that Indigenous people are flowers trying to grow in soil doused in gasoline. But let me be crystal clear, we are not victims. This is going to be a shorter video, but an important one. If you're indigenous, please watch it. If you know an indigenous person, please, please share it. Let's talk about it. Foreign. 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. I'm the proud daughter of Alma Boucher, a member of Seine river and the granddaughter of Perrine and Thomas Church Jordan or Perrine Jordan and Thomas Godden. Proud members of Kuchi Ching First Nation Indigenous people have been oppressed. We battle internalized oppression every single day. The racism that is thrown at us and inflicts pains on our bodies and our families and our communities on a regular basis is ridiculous. But we are not victims. Missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is real. Discrimination is real. But we are not victims. Because this is simply the game we are playing. This is the environment we are trying to grow in and our ancestors have been through worse. So to the Indigenous people watching, I need you to remember, if your family cuts you down, tells you you're never going to amount to anything, makes fun of your goals and your dreams, discourages your education, succeed anyway. Don't hate them for it. It's part of the bargain. They have been trained to feel that way. It doesn't mean you do succeed anyway. If your teachers will not help you and your education system is letting you down, then I want you to behave like my mom did in self educate books on a regular basis. Constantly upping my education game. And you can too. If you have the Internet, if you have access to reading a book, if you can watch a video online, you can improve your education. This is up to you. You will forever be limited by the barriers you choose to defend. Quit believing they will win. You decide if they do, do not let them win. If someone won't hire you, then you're gonna do like I did and you're gonna create your own business, create a job for you. You're going to work as hard as you can and you're not going to do it to prove them wrong. You're going to do that in the process. But you're going to do this for you. You're going to create indigenous centered safe space where you can be you, the best level of you. Not the oppression, not the reactions to the oppression. Who we were before the others came. Why? Because you were sent here on purpose. You are not an accident. Creator knew we needed you here. So you honor you, knowing that other people will always treat you like you treat you. So you start respecting yourself. So will they. You start being kind to you, they will see you being kind to you and they will know how to treat you. You start respecting your boundaries, and they will. It starts with you. Our bloodline has been through so much more than this. Do not let them win. I don't care what the mountain is. You have to climb to get to where you want to. You have been over mountains before. You go back and watch the night sky exercise from a day that changed everything to help you realize just how many challenges you have already overcome. You are way stronger than you think you are, by the way. Strong has nothing to do with feeling strong. When you get out of bed and decide to get up and do whatever you got to do on the days that you don't feel like doing it, like the world is against you and you do it anyways, that is you at your strongest when you feel your weakest and do it anyways. Do not underestimate our bloodlines. Do not underestimate your ancestors did not go through all they were went through just for you to give up. This is your chance. They gave you the one thing you need to succeed. The one thing you need to succeed. Life, the chance, what you do with it is up to you. I know. I believe in you. You can settle. And trust me, I know how easy it would be. When I started my business and I was hanging with a friend who was actively in her alcoholism, it would have been so easy to join her in the bar every single day and not worry about building a business, not trying to earn money. Just pretend, pretend that doesn't matter for a while. And I'd be lying through my teeth if I said that on Sundays. I didn't do that. But I knew I couldn't keep doing that because then I knew I would be the reason I failed. And there was enough people already telling me I was not and I was never going to succeed. When I wrote my first book, I literally was told, who would read something you wrote? Guess what? Four books later, three bestsellers. They were wrong. And I didn't do it to prove them wrong. I did it to prove that I knew what I was doing was right. I knew I could do this. I had to prove it to myself. So I don't care what other people say. What is important is what you are saying to you. Stop beating yourself up. Stop tearing yourself down. Start. Stop abusing yourself because you deserve better and the world needs you. So we are not victims. We have been victimized. We have been oppressed. We have been handed challenges. We are in the midst of the wickedest video game ever. But I don't know you. I like to beat the boss and get to the end. I like to be the boss. It's called self determination. I will decide how hard I work. I will decide how much money is in my bank account and I will decide if I can or cannot do something. And I'm into things that help me succeed, help me get healthier, help me get stronger so I can help more people. And I hope that you're on the same journey. That's all I had to say. Just quit believing them. Quit believing you're less than Quit believing. All of the garbage people say about indigenous people, they're wrong. They don't know us. To home with them. Let their words go quiet. You do you the best version of you. Be the person your ancestors prayed for. Live the life they wish they could have had. That's what I do every single day. I love you. Take care. Bye bye.
