Sandi L Boucher, Red Thunderbolt of the Loon clan from Seine River First Nation, marks National Indigenous Peoples Day by asking people to honour Indigenous cultures and attend powwows with respect. Dancers are not entertainment. Show up humble and without judgment.
Questions this video answers
Sandi L Boucher (Red Thunderbolt), woman of the Loon clan, member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 territory, Northern Ontario.
June 21, 2023.
Chapters
Its National Indigenous Peoples Day. What are you doing to help us celebrate this day? Bonjour, Mishko Pogganon, Kwei Nidishnikas, Mung Dodem. Hello, 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 today is National Indigenous Peoples Day, which means, in case you haven't figured it out yet, I recorded this ahead of time because I'm not working on June 21st. Actually going out for lunch with my staff because they help me do amazing, important work. And I. I want to honor them on this day. But the question is, what are you doing to honor this day? I've had a few conversations lately because Indigenous Peoples Month is June, but it's also Pride Month. And I understand with all the insanity, the violence, the utter, disgusting racism that is being thrown at two spirited, gay trans people, I understand why we are seeing such a strong movement in that area, and I support that. But we can't forget about Indigenous people. We can't forget about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. We can't forget about the fact that our people are overrepresented in our prison systems. And no, that's not because we are just that bad. That is because of systemic racism. Definitely going to have to talk about that in another video. Today is our day. A day to honor Indigenous peoples, to honor our cultures. We will dance at powwow today, and we invite you to join us. But I want to be crystal, crystal clear. And that's what this blog post was about. It's below this video. We don't dance for you. So often people want to reduce our culture, our ceremonies, to entertainment. We are not dancing because you think our outfits are amazing or because we want to hear those comments. Today, we dance for us. We dance to invoke pride. We dance to reconnect with our teachings. We dance to connect with the drum and to Mother Earth under our feet. We dance so our children can see us proud of being Indigenous. We dance black because our ancestors couldn't. And yes, we invite you to come out. And some of us are totally cool with the questions you may ask. But be okay with dancers that are not open to questions because they're there for them. Now, I made a reference in the blog post because I love using metaphors and tying it to something you might understand. Our powwows are a social gathering, but they're also a really important ceremony, and you wouldn't go to a mass and be interrupting to ask questions. You would sit there and humbly observe and learn. And I ask you, I invite you to go to the powwows today to sit in the stands to watch and absorb. And if you end up in a friendly conversation with someone, ask them if they're okay with you asking them a question. And then make sure that your question isn't dripping in judgment. Stay in the humility lane. Ask like, I don't understand, but I would love to understand what your outfit signifies. And it's not a costume. It's not a costume. Please don't use that word. That's for Halloween. You shouldn't see our regalia at Halloween. So come on out today, please. Show the indigenous people of Canada that you support us and that you remember we're here, not in just some historical context, not in just some textbook, that we're still here. We survived everything that was done. And today we get to dance. I hope to see you there. Take care. I love you. Bye. Bye.
