Sandi L. Boucher, from Seine River First Nation, asks non-Indigenous allies to stop centering themselves in Indigenous spaces. She argues that humility, one of the Seven Grandfather Teachings, means respecting Indigenous-led healing and letting Indigenous people lead their own reconciliation.
Chapters
Sam. Bonjour Mishko Pogganong Kwaitna Dismantledem 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 Tree Territory in Northern Ontario. And I'm here once again to assist Indigenous to do their healing and to find that cultural pride that was stolen from us for so long and to help non Indigenous people truly understand the effects of oppression and colonization, to help them understand what they're seeing in Indigenous communities. And I really want to stress something here. One of the things I love the most about my career is I swear I learn as much as you do when I do a seminar or a key keynote or even a webinar with a group of people. And last week I did one of my Lunch and learn sessions, the first for the July series, and we had a really good it was a brief discussion, the webinar was short, but we had a really good discussion on how as an Indigenous woman, as an Anishinaabegwe, as an Ojibwe woman, I've had 59 years training in humility. It's one of our seven grandfather teachings. And we are taught that humble confidence, that confidence isn't loud, arrogance is, and that it is totally okay to say I have no idea what the answer is and that that doesn't make me less, it makes me honest. And how in mainstream non Indigenous Canadian, European based society that is not the case, that you're often expected to show up at the meeting or to answer that email and to have the answer. But when it comes to building relationships with Indigenous people, it's humility that's going to build the bridge. The July 10 blog post, which is what I'm talking about today, is called Stop Moving the Center. And again, it's about the reality that my space, these videos, my social media pages are Indigenous centered space. And what I may not have made clear in the other post when I talked about this is I'm actually trying to teach humility. You can't respond with oh, I do that too if you're not Indigenous, because the second you do that, it is no longer Indigenous centered. It is, it's non Indigenous centered, white centered, whatever you happen to be. And there are such rare, so few Indigenous centered spaces that as an ally I need you to understand that you have the power to take it away. And what I need you to do is not do that. So if you can relate to one of my blog posts as a non Indigenous person, feel free to acknowledge that to yourself. What I want you to do is resist typing it. Honor this space in the same way that a Christian would walk into a church. And there's certain ways you would behave not to disrespect the space. I need you to consciously not disrespect an Indigenous centered space. And that is new for so many people. Now, again, this is not about shame or guilt. I have zero interest in making you feel bad for Canadian history because I have discovered that when someone starts feeling shame or guilt, they stop doing anything. We need our allies to do a lot. What I need you to do is stop moving the center. Leave it as an Indigenous centered space. This is your chance to to start practicing getting comfy in an Indigenous centered space without taking it over. And why is that important? Because that's what we need our allies to do to support us without taking the mic. I hope that makes sense. I hope now you understand why I keep focusing on this Indigenous centered space. We so need them to heal and grow and learn. And if we don't heal and grow and learn as Indigenous people, Canadian reconciliation is not going to happen. We will not be ready to meet you in the middle of the bridge. And for you to be ready to work with us, you need to learn humility. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Comment below or send me an email. As always, I love you. Take care. Talk to you soon. Bye. Bye.
