Sandi L. Boucher reads a freestyle poem critiquing mainstream solutions imposed on Indigenous communities in Canada. She argues that child welfare, education, and employment systems fail Indigenous people because they lack culturally appropriate training for foster parents, teachers, and employers, perpetuating assimilation instead of fixing broken processes.
Questions this video answers
Sandi L. Boucher (Red Thunderbolt), Seine River First Nation.
January 5, 2024.
"Thrown off the Colonial Cliff" (freestyle poem).
Approximately 60–70% of children in care are Indigenous.
Chapters
Okay, not gonna lie. Today I'm gonna get Red Thunderbolt blunt on your butt. Because every single day, non Indigenous Canadians in a variety of ways, attempt to help Indigenous people. And in way too many cases, what is happening is causing more harm. And we need to talk about this. So 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 those mainstream non Indigenous solutions that are not flipping helping. So back in December, I haven't shared this anywhere. I got a little paper here. I wrote a freestyle poem called Thrown off the Colonial Cliff. And today I wanted to share it with you and then I'll unpack it with you so that you understand what I was saying. So I'm going to just share it the way it is in the beginning and then we'll go over it. So thrown off the Colonial cliff. No feather, no balance. Just more colonialism. Child welfare. Save the kids. No training for foster parents. Education. Indigenous youth need education. No training for teachers, employers. Indigenous need jobs. No training for employers. And they blame us. They know we are different. They know colonial systems don't work for us. But nothing changes, so they can continue to blame us. So let's talk about it. No feather, no balance, just more colonialism. So again, to Row Wampum trying to swim in between the lanes, trying to find reconciliation, trying to find take the best of both worlds. But in all of these cases, there is no attempt to take the best of both worlds. It's we're judging you. What you're doing isn't working. So we're going to force you into our system. Pure assimilation. So the first one, the child welfare system. Are many Indigenous children in situations they shouldn't be in? Of course they are. Our communities are not situations anyone should be in. Thank you very much, Canada, for creating those environments. Remember, our First Nation communities are not where we naturally live. That's where we got moved to. That's where we got confined to. And then all of that trying to grow in soil dosed in gasoline. So these parents who were removed from their parents for generations, thanks to the residential schools and down through the years, parents are growing up and having children without ever having parents. How do you learn to be a parent who have one? For generations, we didn't have parents. We had institutional experiences and now we're getting crucified for not being good parents. Whose fault was it that we didn't have our parents. So again, our children are taken. They're not placed in indigenous homes. And to be fair, the number of healthy indigenous homes would not. We don't have enough of those to hold all of the children that need saving, that need help, that need protection for the time being. But where is the training for the foster parents? Where is the. This is the requirement to look after these children. These are indigenous children. They have indigenous values. Do not take that away from them because it's more assimilation. It's just automatically assumed that they will be better off in these non indigenous homes. That's white supremacy. That's problematic. Education system, well done. By the way, there are more indigenous children in care. Like 60, 70% of the kids in care are indigenous kids. It's the latest system that separates our children from our parents from their own parents. It's not working. Let's acknowledge that education system. Well, well documented then it doesn't work for indigenous people. But just now we are starting to training for teachers on how to empower indigenous youth. Not to assimilate them, not to force them to do it the mainstream way, but to support and grow them as who they are. Otherwise it's just another culture educating our children. And that's assimilation. And I have a real problem with any system that goes after innocent kids. Sorry. You want to do battle with indigenous people, then you go face to face with the adults. We're ready for you. Keep your hands off our kids. No one bugs me. Then the next one, the employers on the judgment thrown at our communities. They need jobs, they should be employed. Let's forget all about the emotional and physical pain inflicted on us that we've never had the chance or supports to heal from. You just decided we want a job and four years. I used to work in employment and training for 20 plus years. What I'm talking about, there has been training for indigenous people on how to be successful in mainstream for years. Where is the corresponding training for employers on how to support an indigenous employee to be successful? I'd be willing to bet there is training if you were to employ foreign workers. Because you have to understand they do things differently. They look at things differently. So do we. Except for some reason there seems to be this ingrained. Yeah, but they're indigenous. They should just learn. There's no acceptance, no support. Just that judgment, that condemnation, that assimilation. They blame us and that's for me what it comes down to. Because they blame us for being lazy and not wanting jobs. They blame us for struggling in school, they blame us for not being lousy parents. They never once look at the fact any other organization, institution. If you had me running my own business, if I had some process going on that wasn't working, I'd be the first to look at that process and change it. But when it comes to indigenous people, we don't change the process. We just keep blaming indigenous people. Food for thought. Reconciliation is not quick. It's going to take time, but it's going to take the wind. Speaking truth, especially to power. These systems don't work for indigenous people. They never have. Forcing us to take part in them is not going to change anything. Ever has, never will. But we can change it and make a difference. That's why I'm here. I hope that made sense. Looking forward to your comments. What do I have for you tomorrow? Oh, tomorrow's podcast day. My first podcast of 2024. I have. I hope if you're on my email list. The email went out. I have like four different things to touch on, so this is going to be amazing. Talk to you soon. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.
