My Teachings - The Basis of My AI Fears!

I'm being lazy today. Well, actually, no, I'm not. I'm being dedicated today. Today is paperwork day. Today is get a lot of stuff behind the scenes done. And that's for many, many women out there will know what I mean when I say that's a pull your hair up in a high ponytail or a bun and get her done. That's what I'm doing today. But I owe you more video. So we're going to ignore this and we're going to focus on the topic at hand. I have three different things I want to share with you today. First, I'm going to talk to you about my mom. And the church story is what I now call it. Important lesson there. Then we're going to talk about Anishinaabe sacred items. And why we're doing those two things is because I want to talk to you about AI. 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 I'm doing everything I can to bring a country together, namely Canada. I am Anishna Beque, an Ojibwe female, and I have spent my entire life trying to empower, support, encourage Indigenous peoples. Then about 10 years ago, I was like, wait a minute. As part of my decolonizing process, I realized, why is all the training on the Indigenous side kind of implying that the only thing that needs to be improved is on the Indigenous side? And that's simply not true. There's so much missing information, misinformation, stereotypes out, no discrimination and racism going on on mainstream. So I realized I had to balance the feather. And now I proudly work on both sides. I get to work with the most amazing Canadians. These are people that understand they're missing something. They usually have a lot of fear. They do not want to cause any more harm. They are confused. They want to do the right thing. They want to be on the right side of moving forward of history, but they don't know how. And that's the people I get to work with. And then of course, the absolutely amazing men and women in the communities, watching their own families suffering, having their own trauma stories, and still showing up and doing the good work. I work with a whole bunch of people that are good medicine and I love it. But my journey with good medicine started with my mom. So one of the reasons I'm so dedicated to this journey is the fact that my mom was this beautiful Anishinaabe Kwe, a proud member of Seine River First Nation. But our bloodlines from Coochicheng First Nation, just. Just her stories, her teachings, her worldview. Amazing. But my dad was French Canadian from St. Jerome, Quebec. And no, I am not Metis. That is another video. If you have questions, I can answer them. My mom was taught to be ashamed of everything she knew about being Anishinaabe. She wanted us to have what she used to call a backbone. And she wasn't literally talking about her backbone. What she was talking about was a belief system, something that we could hang on to, to use to support ourselves when it all hit the fan. And because she couldn't pass on her teachings to us, she did the next best thing. She took us to church. My dad's church, a Roman Catholic church. And every single Sunday, we would walk from our little home in our little hometown. Our little. The home wasn't little. We lived in a big barn kind of thing. But our small town was little. And we'd walk to the church. And every single Sunday, the exact same thing played out. Because mom couldn't help being who she was and raising her kids. She would risk everything to pass on to us what she knew we needed. So she used to stop us on the top step and get us to look her in the eye, like moms do when their kids. They want their kids to listen. She would always say the same thing. When you go inside and the man at the front starts talking, if the little voice in your head says, wow, yeah, that makes so much sense, then you take it and you keep it and you use it, that was meant for you. But if he says something and the little voice in your head goes, what? Leave it here. Doesn't make him a bad person. Just means that was meant for somebody else. My mom believed. And the thing my mom feared the most was blind faith. She believed the Creator gave us a brain and we are supposed to use it. And I have been teaching that to my audiences for decades. Even when I'm the one that's talking, if it doesn't make sense to you, either ask your questions or go do your research. Do not have blind faith in anyone, because that's giving someone way too much power over your journey. And it's also stopping you from developing your wisdom. You need to ask, what do I think about this? What do I feel about this? Was I wrong? Right? Like you have the right to grow and learn? There are things I used to believe. I don't believe anymore. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you're not checking in and you're doing yourself a disservice. My mom was the master of empowerment, even though she never would have used that word because she would have called that a $15 word. My mom disliked any huge, often academic term that took something huge and turned it into one convenient word or a phrase like residential school era huge made convenient. But my mom was a master of empowerment. And when I used to ask her a question whether I was a teenager or a young mom, my mom never gave me the answer. Instead, she asked leading questions to help me find my own. And when I used to tease her about doing that, because after a while, you figure out she's not going to give you an answer, she used to always say the same thing, that I was the only one that was going to be with me for my entire journey. So I should probably start listening to myself and listening to what my spirit is, what my spirit needs, and what my wisdom is saying. That's what I want you to do. I don't want you to have blind faith in anyone. I don't want you to follow the masses. I don't want you to be a sheep. I want you to ask yourself, does this fit in with what I believe? Does this serve me? Does believing this stereotype bring this country together and bring my community together? Probably not. So no blind faith. Ask yourself what you're thinking. Okay, that was point number one. Move into point number two. So in the opening, I said I was going to share with you a little bit about Anishinaabe sacred items. And I can only speak to Anishinaabe items, Ojibwe items, because that's my culture. Many, many indigenous cultures living within Canadian borders, each with different sacred items. This is not one size fits all, but in our culture, sacred items can be everything from a big traditional drum to a hand drum, to an eagle feather to medicines to a pipe, an eagle whistle. So many things. Wow. I haven't yawned on a video in so long. Talking too fast. Oxygen, Sandy. But a while ago, I was having a conversation with a friend, a friend I hadn't seen in years, and a friend who had been through a lot, been down a rough path, definitely had his struggles. And just in the course of the conversation, it became obvious to me that he believed his strength, his resilience, his endurance was dependent on his sacred items that he needed. I'm not going to tell you what sacred items he carries, because that's no one's business. If someone's bragging about the sacred items, they Carry run the other way because that's directly against our humility teachings. No one except the absolute closest people to us should know what's in our bundle bag, which is whatever kind of bag we carry our sacred items in. So trust, that's a, that's a heads up if they're bragging run not viable or dependable resource. So anyways, it became obvious that he thought he had survived because of his sacred items. And I pointed out to him that our sacred items are tools. Their assistance that the resilience, the strength, the wisdom, the courage, that's us. And yes, sometimes we need to use our sacred items to remind ourselves how strong we are, how wise we are, how resilient we are, how brave we are, whatever the case may be. But the strength doesn't come from the sacred item. It comes from us. It is magnified by the sacrifice sacred item. I hope that made sense. And the example I gave was the residential schools in that entire era where our sacred items were confiscated and outlawed. And yes, many indigenous went straight into the bush to continue practicing and, and protecting their ceremonies by taking them way far away from mainstream view. But the people in the schools and our cultures survived. Not because those kids were allowed to have their sacred items, but because they carried those wisdoms and teaching and resilience and courage. And then when they came back out, some came back to their owner ceremonies and picked up sacred items again and some didn't. Some are still terrified of our own teachings and locked into Christianity because that's what they were. I have met people that are terrified to hear anything about indigenous culture even though they're indigenous. Their indigenous culture I should say, because the brainwashing was so intense. But my point is again, it is not the items that is the source of all that strength, resilience, courage and wisdom. That's us. They are just tools. Time for point three. The final point I wanted to talk about to bring this all together is AI. Now I'd be very curious to hear. You can put it in the comments. I am bombarded by advertisement and encouragement and and just pushing me to use AI on a regular basis. Now of course I am in business, so what comes across my social media feed and even the platforms I am on might be different. But I swear I can be online on any of those platforms like well under an hour. I'm going to see some reference to AI and why I should use it and what you can do with it in blah blah blah. And I am not saying that's a bad thing. I think Staying clear of AI is probably naive and risking yourself being left behind. I mean, we have to adapt with the times. Resilience means adapting. Indigenous culture didn't survive because it absolutely remained the same. Our base core, tenements and teachings and worldview remain the same. But everyone adapts. But AI is a tool. So what I'm saying is don't have blind faith in that platform and remember that the intelligence and the wisdom and the strength and the resilience come from you, not from AI. When I see platforms or AI apps, they can do menial tasks for you that you don't have time, help with your time management, you know, respond to emails, whatever. Okay, that makes sense. That's like hiring a staff person or whatever. But I see people, they used to write content all the time that now won't write a paragraph without checking with chat GPT first. They won't name a new program without checking in on the title. And yes, AI can tell you that this title has a chance of getting more hits and views than this one. What do you want to say? What content do you want to put out there? I can tell you as Anishinaabe kwe, as a 10 year domestic abuse survivor, I. I know what it's like not to have a voice, to have lost your voice. And there is no way in God's green earth that I'm going to let AI take away my authenticity. And I see it in the responses to some of my posts that way too many of the comments sound exactly the same and no one's going to admit it's AI generated. But come on. So difference is beautiful, diversity is beautiful. And we're starting to see voices all become the same. Robotic responses. I really, really. From someone who has lost her voice and fought so hard to get it back, do not let AI take your voice. And guess what? AI is not storming the door and taking it away from you. Just like in so many other cases when we become disempowered, it'll be because you give the that entity, that process the power. Stop. If it is encouraging you to doubt yourself more, why are you using it? If it's going to rob you of the confidence to use your own voice and share your own thoughts, why are you using it? I'm sorry. Hits and views and likes and shares are not worth me using my voice, losing my voice, I should say so. Whether it's going to get me more views on YouTube or not, I don't care. I fought too hard to get here and AI is not anything I'm going to have blind faith in. I am my mother's daughter. I know better than that. I would love to hear your thoughts. I would love to hear your experience with AI. How often are you being encouraged to use it? Have you tried it? And are you getting dangerously close to dependent on it? Until next time. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.