Let's Talk Non-Violent RESISTANCE PLUS My Own Story!

And here we are again.

This week we've been talking about the natural human reactions to oppression or internalized oppression. And there's one more we got to talk about. This is the important one, so let's talk about it.

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. And. And this week we've been looking at oppression and internalized oppression and most importantly, the reactions to that environment. I talked to you about acquiescence, the people we are at risk of losing, the ones who have adopted an attitude of giving up. Yesterday we talked about violence and how it's a natural human reaction when you keep telling someone that they're never going.

To amount to anything. At some point there's a really good.

Chance they're going to lash out. Again, a reaction to the environment. But every single day I take everything.

I got and I try to encourage.

Indigenous people to move towards the third natural human reaction, and that is nonviolent resistance. In everyday language, I describe it as any action that breaks the stereotype, that proves you do not buy the BS that you do not believe the stereotypes about Indigenous people. So this is a young indigenous man, woman, whatever. We don't need to get into identity here. Choosing to graduate high school because they want a future. They are so done with poverty. This is a young individual or individual of any age choosing to get a driver's license, daring to go on to post secondary, daring to bid for that job, daring to believe that they can get that promotion and requesting it. This is silencing all those stereotypes and realizing you are not the stereotypes the problem. Non Indigenous people often just see the achievement and they don't realize the mountain we had to climb to get to the point where we were gutsy enough to believe we could do it. When I work with colleges and university, I'm always reminding them, you have no idea. The first mountain that Indigenous student climbed was being gutsy enough to walk into the door of this establishment. And that's after the mountain they climbed to be gutsy enough to apply. None of these are easy for us. This is us fighting that wave that is constantly trying to take us under. And we got to get better at celebrating these. And by the way, when a young woman chooses to get a jingle dress or a young man chooses to get his regalia and dance at powwow, non violent resistance. It doesn't have to be some mainstream achievement. I am a huge advocate of the Fact, I want to live long enough to see the day where traditional indigenous teachings are celebrated. That education system is celebrated on par with the mainstream education system. That would be back to back teaching. That would be to the benefit of this country for everyone. So there's the three Violence, acquiescence and non violent resistance. So what I have for you today, I know you're shocked. I have another handout for you. So this is a quiz. There's 10 questions I'm going to ask you and you probably want to grab a piece of paper, pause the video. I'm going to ask you 10 questions.

And you tell me whether you think.

It'S acquiescence, giving up violence or non violent resistance. So the first one, an indigenous young woman jumps onto her favorite social media platform and insults another woman on the reserve for taking her man. Is that violence, acquiescence or non violent resistance? To give you a hint, that's violence. Because gossiping and bullying are forms of violence. Just in case you didn't know that, I'm not going to give you the answers to the rest of them. You could type it into the comments and I'll tell you how you did, but otherwise you could email me, I guess. In fact, if you want a copy of the quiz, you know the deal.

Email me.

Second one. A group of teenagers stages sit in to protest lack of education funding. Is that violence, acquiescence or nonviolent resistance?

Question number three.

A youth chooses to unalive themselves. Violence, acquiescence or nonviolent resistance?

4.

A student chooses to leave the reservation.

To pursue a higher education.

Violence, acquiescence or non violent resistance? 5. A student quits school. Violence, acquiescence or nonviolent resistance.

6. A chief blocks a railway or highway.

To protest the fact that his community has been under a boil water advisory for decades. Not unheard of in Canada. Violence, acquiescence or nonviolent resistance.

7. A teenager drops out of school because she wants to have a family.

Violence, acquiescence or nonviolent resistance.

Number eight.

A young man shoots a music video highlighting the violence in his community. Violence, acquiescence or non violent resistance.

9.

Employees sit around the lunchroom table gossiping about each other. Violence, acquiescence or nonviolent resistance.

10.

A child asks her mom for regalia which is the outfits we wear at powwow. Violence, acquiescence or non violent resistance? And there you have it my friends. We did a week long dive into oppression and internalized oppression. Tomorrow I have a very special video for those in marginalized groups who suffer from oppression or internalized oppression.

I'm going to share with you the.

Teachings and the lessons that help me. And I'd be willing to bet they can help you until tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye bye.

Hi, everybody, it's Sandy Boucher here once again coming in on my own video because I have something different for you today. You see, as I was reviewing my videos to get them ready to get sent off for editing, I realized that I spent quality time explaining oppression and internalized oppression to you. And I promised you that tomorrow I was going to share with you the traditional teachings that I use to help me overcome my internalized oppression. But I realized I never shared the story of how internalized oppression manifested in my life, what it looked like for for me, or how I discovered it. Because, remember, as I mentioned in the videos, often you don't realize that's what you're battling until you start unpacking that suitcase. Now, if you've been a longtime subscriber of my channel, you know I've shared this before. Back in 2022, I did a series of videos called the 52 Steps to Reconciliation. And step 17 was called the Hum, which is my story of internalized oppression. Just to make sure you got the complete picture of this topic, I thought this was the perfect time to share that video with you again so you totally understand where I was coming from. When you listen to the teachings tomorrow, let me know what you think of this video. I'll see you tomorrow.

Bye.

Bye. Bonjour, Mishko Paganan Queen Additional Cosmic Mung Do Dam 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 Northern Ontario Treaty 3 territory. And I'm thrilled to be bringing you this next set of videos that will offer you some insight into life on our side of the feather. If you've had the chance to attend attend any one of my seminars or listen to one of my speeches, there's a good chance that you've heard me explain to people that reconciliation is a topic of discussion for non Indigenous people. But it's lived experience for us who walk that path. So as you watch these next couple of videos, if I trip over a word or you hear my voice crack, know that I'm still very committed to this journey. But what I'm talking about is real. And it's important to me that you understand that in this video I want to talk about something that is incredibly real for many Indigenous people, if not All. And what I'm talking about is the highest. Now, for me to explain this to you, I have to travel back in time to 2016, when I won Businessperson of the Year for the city of Thunder Bay, a city known for its anti indigenous racism. At that point in time, I had already been in business for near 10 years. I was thrilled to be nominated, but there is no way I thought I was going to win, especially when you looked at the non indigenous business professionals that I was running against. But anyone who knows me and my personality, I was determined to enjoy this moment. So I bought the shoes, I bought the dress, I went and got my hair done. Cinderella was gonna go to the ball because I didn't think I was ever going to have an experience like this again. I got ready for the event, but the one thing I didn't do was write a speech.

And when they announced that I had.

Won, not only did the room erupt in applause, which was absolutely so affirming for me, but. But I suddenly realized I had to give a speech that I hadn't prepared, which is really embarrassing when you make a living as a public speaker. But somehow I managed to get up to the stage and get up there in front of those 600 people and I gave a speech. I was so overwhelmed in the moment that I didn't even know what I had to say. I had to watch the replay of my own speaker speech to hear what I had said. And that's the important part, because when I watched the replay, the first words that came out of my mouth were they said it could never happen. Now, over the course of the next three, four, five months, I had many, many people raise up to me in grocery stores and eventually to congratulate me on my win. And most of them wanted to know who was this person that had the nerve to tell me that I wouldn't succeed. And you see, that's the problem, because after being asked 5, 10, 20 times, I decided to sit down and ask myself, where did that come from? Because you see, I couldn't name one person who had said those words to me. But I knew in that moment that was a heartfelt utterance. I needed to know where it came from. So I did what I always do. I thought about it. And then I sat down and I wrote a blog post. And I called it the Hum. Now, if any of you have ever worked in an office with fluorescent lighting, you know exactly what I mean by the hum. The that constant buzzing sound in the background as you go about your day. But for indigenous people, or for me at least, the hum was a voice. And it was saying things like, you're never gonna succeed. Why are you even trying? They're not gonna hire you. No one that looks like you works there. Why are you trying to go to college? You're not gonna be be accepted there. That person is never going to want to be your friend. Why do you keep trying? Because you see, as an indigenous person in this country, when we walk into a store with our parents as a youngster and we don't see any indigenous people working there, our little brains register that indigenous people don't do that. When we go to schools and none of our teachers look like us, we assume indigenous people can't be teachers. And on and on it goes. I shared that blog post and it instantly became my most popular blog post, because suddenly I was flooded with responses from indigenous person after another after another. And often all the email said was, I hear the hum too. The first time I shared it in seminar, as I shared the story I just shared with you, different people in the audience started crying. And there was this one young woman near the front of the room, and I asked her if she was comfortable sharing why she was so upset. She shared that she had three university degrees, but that she couldn't count how many times the hum had almost convinced her to quit, had almost convinced her that she'd never be able to graduate. After she shared, I looked around the room and I asked the audience of about 100 Indigenous people if anyone else had heard the hum. And every single one of them put up their hand. I gave them the opportunity to share. I went around the room and asked people to share their story if they felt comfortable. And it became obvious really quickly that not only had every single one of them heard the hum, but every single one of them thought it was only them, that they were the only ones that could hear it. So when you wonder why indigenous people don't apply for that job, don't come out of the communities, don't go for the higher education, it's not lack of interest. It's not because we enjoy poverty. It might just be because we don't know how to silence the hum. Now I'm living proof you can do it. I've gone on to succeed, and now I spend a lot of time teaching other indigenous people how to do same. So if you're indigenous watching this, reach out. I have some advice for you that might just help. And if you're non indigenous watching this, please don't go to judgment Next time you see someone struggling, remind yourself it might just be the humor. Until next week. Take care of you.

Bye.

Bye.