Key Components of Reconciliation, the Gifts of a Father & A Request (June 12 Blog Post)

Foreign. Hello, everybody. It's Andy 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 I'm here with yet another week of why Video. So if you're new to my channel or new to my work, just to give you some background here, I have been sharing blog posts on an almost daily basis, sometimes seven days a week, sometimes five days a week, for the last 13 years. And in the beginning, writing has always been the way I made sense of my world as Nishnaabe Kwe, as an Ojibwe woman in Canada, often the way things were done in quote, unquote, mainstream confused me or I looked at things differently than my friends or colleagues did. And writing was always my escape. No one judged me in my writing. I could be honest and just release the doubts or confusion or fears that I was feeling years ago when 2008, I started sharing them. And they actually, after the passing of my mom, they became my first book, went on to be my second book, definitely the basis of my last book. But what I've come to realize is those sharings are a huge part of my reconciliation work. If you're indigenous reading my words, hopefully they help you to realize you're not alone. And yes, your opinion is different from mainstream. That doesn't make it wrong. It makes it indigenous. And our worldview is different. And for the non indigenous people who wish to be allies and want to be part of this reconciliation journey, you have so often been denied the opportunity to hear an Indigenous perspective, largely because mainstream has. Has set out to silence us for decades. But you never realized that that was going to rob you of such amazing, amazing wisdom and knowledge, especially as it relates to this land, our traditional territories, Turtle Island. So this year I'm still releasing my blog post, but I realized that's just a small snapshot, you know, and it's. It's written in, you know, author prose. And what I wanted to do was do these videos to help you understand the backstory. Today's blog post is simply called dad because yesterday on June 11, would have been my dad's birthday. Now, that is incredibly important, not just because he was my dad, but because of the fact that my dad happened to be non Indigenous. My dad was an amazing Frenchman from Sejerome, Quebec, and thanks to him, my eternal love of frogs continues to this day. My dad was my cheerleader because, you see, my dad didn't see me as a little indigenous girl. And Trust me, I was a lot darker when I was younger. Maybe I'll insert a picture into this to prove that point. But he didn't see my mom as an indigenous woman to be taken advantage of like so many non indigenous men do. He saw the most beautiful woman he had ever met. He saw his partner. He saw an intelligent woman. And in me, well, he actually saw what he thought would be the person that's going to be Prime Minister one day. Thanks, but no thanks on that one. But in my reconciliation work, in all the years that I've been working in first nations communities, I now see the results if there are two indigenous parents both having tried to survive in this very oppressive country because the oppression of Indigenous people continues until this day. And the natural reactions to oppression, the violence, the complete and total giving up, and then hopefully the nonviolent resistance. But when I see the children raised by two parents that are saying things like, why bother? It's never going to change, then you see the children suffering and believing it will never change. And I know I am able to do the work I do. And I've been able to achieve what I've achieved because my dad was in the house. Because what you need is either someone who does believe things can change, like me, or someone that isn't marginalized like my dad. So I am thankful every single day. I was raised in line with my mom's teachings. And by the way, no, I am not Metis. That'll just totally confuse the daylight side of people. I am, quote unquote, a status Indian and a member of Seine River First Nation. You can thank some really confusing Indigenous affairs rules for that one. But I had my dad's belief in me. My dad constantly telling me, people are going to try to stop you. People are going to tell you you're not going to be able to do it. People are going to tell you you will never succeed and you have to ignore them and do it anyways. And I am so thankful every single day for my father. He didn't lie to me. He didn't, excuse the expression, blow smoke up my butt. He warned me that people were going to try to stop me and that they wouldn't believe in me and that I had to. His saying was, you can be anything you want to be if and only if you're willing enough to work hard enough to get it. And I was, and I am. And what I want is a reconciled Canada. So today's blog post is just in honor of my dad, because I lost my dad a long time ago I lost him at all of 17 years old. I am now 59 years old. I have lived a lot longer without him than I did with him, but his words still resonate and inspire. So today, do me a favor. When you go out in the world, choose carefully the words you share because they may last long after you do. My dad taught me that. So join me in in celebrating my dad, the amazing man that gave me my wings to fly and permission to fly as high as I wanted to. And by the way, if you want to learn more about that Metis not being Metis confusion, just put a comment below the video. I'll do another video to explain it. Welcome to another week on the path to Reconciliation. I love you. Take care. Bye bye.

Hello again you amazing person, you Sandy Boucher Once again cutting in on my own video to tell you all about my brand new all inclusive membership program. Program. And seriously, if you like any part of my work, whether it's the blog posts and my writing style, my seminars, my speeches, my courses, you are going to want to be part of this. I mean, look at everything it includes. It includes my 2023 blog post that I'm reviewing in this video. It includes all of the blog posts from 2022 that you can't get anywhere else. And the best part, look at this. You get to read whichever one you want in whatever order you want based on the day, based on the title. It's totally up to you. You check it off as read and come back as often as you want. Talk about honoring your path and you doing this your way. On top of that, the entire 52 steps to reconciliation video set is available in the membership again only place you can find it. And again, watch it in whatever order you want to. There's courses the Path, the path away from lateral violence, Missing Pieces, and even a day that can change everything. That includes so many of the teachings that I live my life by. And if something comes up in your workplace, maybe you need to bop into one of my courses to review one of the lessons again. Watch them in the order that you need and there's PDFs for you to download. This is everything I've got and it gets updated on a regular basis and it doesn't affect how much you pay. So how much do you pay? Well, $19 a month. That's a lot of content for $19 a month there when you need it at your fingertips or pay the annual rate and you save any more, even more. And if you want it for your staff or group, well, I have a price for that too. I am here to support you in any way I can and this membership fits the bill. I can't wait to see you in the all inclusive membership. Now back to the video.