Sandi L Boucher (Red Thunderbolt, Loon clan) presents a short, practical talk on humility as a core tool for reconciliation work, framed within the PATH acronym (Patience, Awareness, Tenacity, Humility) and grounded in Anishinaabe "seven grandfather teachings." She gives concrete guidance for practicing humility in an indigenous-centered YouTube space (use 'Aho' instead of 'amen', nod or say 'Miigwech', avoid unsolicited teaching), explains moderation choices (deleting boastful or judgmental comments), and asks viewers to practice listening as if in a sacred teaching circle.
Chapters
Hello, you super duper, double delicious person, you. I'm loving how this week the videos are very practical. I'm giving you challenges or exercises that you can practice that are going to make you better. If ever you find yourself in a reconciliation situation, today we're going to continue with that. In my book, the path I pointed out for sacred or essential traits tools you need to do reconciliation work and to be really nice to you to remember them. You just got to think of the word path because path is the acronym that'll tell you the four sacred tools. Patience. Be patient with the person you're working with. Be patient with yourself. It took us a while to get here. We're not going to solve this by Tuesday. Awareness. Be aware of what's going on for you emotionally. Are you being triggered? Don't take that out on anyone. And be aware of what's going on for the indigenous peoples you're trying to work with. And if you're indigenous, vice versa applies as well. Tenacity. Don't give up. And above all else, humility. Humility builds bridges. Judgment and ego burns them. So today I want to talk about humility. Because as most of you would know, if you've been on my channel for any length of time and if you're new here, welcome. Grab a seat, subscribe, you're going to get some good stuff here. But if you've been here for a while, you know, I noticed the comments, I tried to respond to the comments, but what I don't see very often, often I used to maybe my viewership has changed. I don't see it anymore. I don't see humility in the comments. I see judgment. Those comments tend to be deleted and the user may be blocked pretty quickly. I see ego from people trying to teach, even though they're not indigenous, even though this is not their channel they're going to try. That's pure ego. I don't see humility. And since humility is such a sacred and essential tool today I thought we'd talk about it. I'm going to teach you how to practice humility on an indigenous centered YouTube channel. 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 terrorists territory in Northern Ontario. And as I said in the opening today, we're going to talk about humility. This is really easy for me to do because humility is one of the seven grandfather teachings practiced and adhered to by Anishinaabe people and many indigenous cultures. I do understand that humility is not taught in mainstream, definitely not in corporate culture, business culture, government culture. Not sure. I don't remember seeing it in the education system. So I understand this may be new to a lot of you, which is why I'm giving you tips and tricks and clues. You don't need judgment either. Not any more than we do. I'm not here to judge you. Now, when you hear one of my videos, because remember, this channel is indigenous centered space. If you don't know what that means, check it out. I did that video a couple days ago. So if you hear something or appreciate the comment, of course you can just say that, wow, I really super appreciated it. But here's some tips, really quick things you can do. For one, you can simply type a ho, not amen. We talked about that the other day. Christian terms in an indigenous centered space. We're not going to do that. A ho is just that thumbs up, that agreement that yes, yes, just yes. It's humility because you're not adding to it. It's good just the way it is. Oh, another way you can do this, and I see this all the time in live events when I'm in the audience with a bunch of other indigenous people and we're listening to whoever speak. And I love it because we do it in unison. We're sitting there nodding and you will hear. The only thing you will hear is. That's that. That affirming yes, this is good medicine. This is good for my spirit to hear. That's a huge compliment. Humble. I'm not adding to it. I'm just, I'm acknowledging I hear you. And yes, yes, Migwech, I heard that. As I said, humility is just accepting without feeling the need to add to it. If you have a question, humble questions are less welcome. Not why don't they just. That's judgment. But I don't understand why indigenous people don't. You're talking about you. You don't understand. That's beautiful. That's humble. That's vulnerable. That is welcome. What else do I have on my list here? Humility is thanking creator and the speaker for the information that you just heard. Where humility is simply just receiving. Maybe it's that thumbs up, you know what, or typing a hoe like we talked about earlier. Now, anyone who's been, I don't know, have you ever watched a comment disappear? Or do I do it before I get up really early? Maybe I delete them before you see them. But I remove boastful comments. If you're going to come in here and brag about how much you know about indigenous people, there's no humility there. That's gone. No surprise. I don't think you're surprised I removed judgmental. Com comments. Why? Like that whole trans pretendian comment that even became a video, but it definitely got deleted. And unless an elder, an indigenous elder is speaking, any teaching type comment I'm removing, you have 100%. You have the right to be a teacher. Go create a YouTube channel or do it on your Facebook page, whatever. Unless you ask my permission to share your teachings on my channel. That is literally overstepping. That is you walking into someone else's home and deciding what's for dinner. Okay, so you just wouldn't do it. But unfortunately, privilege has trained a lot of people to assume that. They just can. It's my right. I can do this anywhere. No, no, you wouldn't do it in someone's else home. Don't do it on someone else's YouTube channel. And the best part about this channel is here you get to practice. And I love that. So I want you to imagine when you're watching one of my videos, and I've definitely shared this before, you can imagine either we're sitting at a kitchen table. I mentioned that previously, but now I want you to imagine we're sitting in a sacred circle, a teaching circle. And an elder is speaking. Not me. An elder is speaking. And you listen. Mmm. You agree? Oh, you agree, Miigwech, you agree or you just say nothing? That's humility. You just listen. Now, why do I want you to do this? Because humility builds bridges. If you get good at this, practicing in this safe environment, then you're gonna hear when that indigenous employee is saying that there's something wrong in the culture, that a phrase that was used was problematic. You're going to be able to hear without interrupting, without judging, without trying to teach them. You're just going to be able to hear. But there is a segment of the population, I can tell you right now, that is really going to struggle with this. I have no doubt in my mind. It happens all the time. And the people that are going to struggle the most with practicing humility are white males, and especially older white males, because except for in church, they've not normally been in an environment where they just have to listen. Unless someone was a boss and that authority was established, run anywhere else, they've been raised to believe that their opinion they've been taught their opinion is valuable not an indigenous centered space and those are the people the same people that run so many corporations who are now struggling with their indigenous engagement and wondering why it's not working it's because they're lacking humility so and and they know how to do it they behave that way in church so maybe it would help to remember that for Anishinaabe or many indigenous cultures this is all a church to us we don't worship in a building we worship anywhere on mother earth we give thanks and gratitude and you're sitting here with us so here's your chance to practice humility I hope that made sense I hope you heard me I'm looking forward to the Ahoes and the and the McGwitches that would show me that you heard until tomorrow yes no next week I never know what day of the week it is Next week until next week I love you Take care Bye bye It.
