Sandi L Boucher, an Ojibwe woman from Seine River First Nation (Treaty 3 Territory) and resident of Thunder Bay, responds to viewer questions about Indigenous perspectives on Canada Day and the Prime Minister's request to fly the Canadian flag on Flag Day. She explains she has not celebrated Canada Day for at least two decades, describes why many Indigenous people refuse to celebrate settler-colonial commemorations, and says she did not fly a Canadian flag on Flag Day (preferring to fly First Nations flags at community events such as powwows). The video mixes personal testimony, critique of colonial celebrations, and a call for Canadians to learn from First Nations.
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Hello you super duper double delicious person you. So you may not know this, but I do viewer requests. Not as often as I would like to. If there's something you would like me to do a video on, please email me at my address. I'm that's what I'm here for. To give you guidance to answer your questions. It is literally the work I do. So recently I received an email from one of my fans friends, followers. Absolutely love this person and she had like a double sided question for me. One, what do I think of the Indigenous people who have chosen not to celebrate Canada Day? And two, what did I think of the past PM's request, past Prime Minister's request for all of us to fly a Canadian flag on Flag Day, which was Saturday? Is that something I was going to do? What did I think of it? So I love the fact that I'm recording and releasing this video after Flag Day. So you were able to do you boo. But I do have some thoughts on both points. So let's talk about it. Hi everybody. My name is Sandy Boucher. I'm what I just said in Ojibwe was that I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan. I'm a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory in Northern Ontario. In other words, I'm an Indigenous woman living within Canadian borders. In fact, I am a quay in Thunder Bay, an Ojibwe woman living in the city of Thunder Bay, which is known nationally for its anti Indigenous racism. A well earned title I might say. So as I mentioned, by the way, have a handy dandy index card. Haven't done that in a long time. As I mentioned in the opening, I got a request to discuss not only Canada Day but Flag Day and the request this year in response to Trump suggesting that Canada should become the fist 51st state. But let's start with Canada Day first. That was the first question that sue had for me. So full transparency here. Personally, I have not celebrated Canada Day in at least two decades, if not longer. It has been a long flipping time. So I guess I was decolonizing even before we had the discussion. Who knew the reason? Well, I guess the convenience of not doing it because I do live in the city of Thunder Bay and Fort William First Nation, which by the way, the city of Thunder Bay is built on the traditional territories of Fort William First Nation. For William First Nation, the community is right on the edge of the city. And like all the other first nations, every year they have their annual powwow nations that have powwows, I should say. And they always celebrate it the same weekend. You can do the powwow Trail and travel to a different powwow every weekend. It's amazing. Dancers do it all the time. I did it for many years. Fort William First Nation happens to have their annual powwow. Are you ready? The last weekend or of June? The very first. Right around July 1st. So for the last at least two decades, I have heard the drums rather than the Canadian anthem on July 1. That absolutely works for me. I guess in response to the question, and sue totally got this in her email, I got to give her kudos. Why would I celebrate Canada Day? This is like Australia Day in Australia. The Indigenous people there are saying the exact same thing. You do not celebrate the day the colonizers declared that this is their land because it has always been and will always be Indigenous land. So not anything I'm ever going to celebrate. And if you don't understand that for when I suggest educating yourself. Because when you learn of Canadian history, and it's not Indigenous history, it's Canadian history, when you learn of Canadian history, I don't think it'll be a surprise to you anymore. But just to get you started on that journey, I have a question for you. Do you make a habit of celebrating those in your life who disregard you, disrespect you, ignore your calls for help, ignore your needs, push you off, marginalize you into another room? Do you celebrate those people? Now you know why Indigenous people don't celebrate Canada Day. And I want to be crystal clear here. Look at the work I do balancing both sides of the feather. I work in First Nation communities, but just as often, I'm working with Canadian entities, municipalities, colleges, universities, hospitals, businesses, corporations, whatever. I want to be proud of Canada. I want to be able to celebrate Canada Day without being a hypocrite. So I work really hard to give guidance to those Canadians that are open to hearing it so that one day we can all be proud to live here and not have an entire group of people that are just enduring. Okay, so that's enough on Canada Day. I think you got my answer on that one. The next one was specifically Flag Day. And like I said, does anyone notice when Flag Day is? No. As a general rule, I'm not saying there aren't people that do. Just not. It's not a huge thing. But this year, because Donald Trump, the elected president in the US for all of those who like to say it's not the US it's just Donald Trump, you elected him. So he has and insists on suggesting that Canada should just become the 51st state, which shows how little he knows about Canada. We have 10 provinces and territories, so it would be 10 states, if anything. And do you really want to give us that much representation in your House and Senate? I don't think so. The Democrats might love that. But I digress. One of the things I think I touched on in the opening, I am really happy that I'm recording and releasing this after Flag Day. So you did whatever you felt you should do. I just hope you knew why you did it so we know why it did it. Again. I have a question as my answer. How annoying is that? Actually, it fills my heart with joy because my mom was a firm believer in the idea that if I give you the answers, then it increases your belief in my wisdom, your faith in me. But if I help you find your own answer, it increases your confidence and belief in you. And I am my mother's daughter. I would so much rather increase your belief in you than have a million followers following me. I'm not going to be around forever, as my mom would say. And at some point, you're going to have to stand on your own. So let's get you believing in you. So the question is, if you had to think of a place where you've traveled to or been where flags were flying like crazy all over the place, where would that be now? I'm gonna guess there might be some places in Europe. And, I mean, if that's the case, so be it. But for many Canadians, I'd be willing to bet the first thing that comes to mind is the U.S. i know every single time I travel to the U.S. it catches my attention because it's so different to see flags flying everywhere. So my point proving, we're different. You don't do that by acting the same. So we don't need to fly flags all over the flipping place and act like the Americans do to prove we're proud to be Canadian. I believe that Canadians show national pride on a regular basis. They do that. Have you ever watched them cheering for teen Canada? There's some enthusiasm. Or our Canadian hockey teams. Or a Canadian team of every kind. Can you say the vans of the Toronto Maple Leafs Die hard. Die hard. I also believe it's national pride are consideration for other people. The fact that you can be in Canada and someone's going to stop. If you're on the side of the road and you have a flat tire, someone's going to stop to help you the fact that often you make friends along the highway. If the highway is blocked for whatever reason, you can make friends. It is our friendliness. It is our saying sorry. We don't apologize for being polite. So I think you see national Canadian pride everywhere, and we don't express it by mimicking the US So that's my two cents. Long story short, in case you haven't guessed it, no, I didn't fly a flag on Flag Day. I'm not going to buy a Canadian flag. I'm a full supporter of flying my first nations flag. I don't do it in the city of Thunder Bay. That would be, in my opinion, disrespectful to the city of Thunder Bay. Do you know where we fly our flags? Not only in our communities, but at the beginning of the powwow. And if there are nations that are visiting, they are welcome to join in the opening ceremony and walk their flags in. So we do honor the flags. We honor the flags. We're proud of the flags that we fight for. And yes, if it came down to it, if I have to choose between fighting for a Canadian flag or an American flag, yeah, I'm on the Canadian side. Even if as an indigenous person, you know what? I'm gonna fly both because I am proud of the First Nation communities and all they endure and the fact that they're still resilient. And I stand by my truth that Canada, you could be so much better if you stopped looking down on the first nations and actually started learning from us, if we actually started walking together, which is what we thought we were going to do from the day you arrived. So there's my two cents. My thoughts on Canada Day long before Canada Day and on the request to fly flags on Flag Day, I'd love to see your comments and again, email me if you have a video request until tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.
