The #1 Way to DESTROY Successful Indigenous/Non-Indigenous Engagement!

The reality is there are so many people interested in mastering Indigenous engagement, even though they probably wouldn't use that terminology. This is the small business owner that is trying to keep his store or his cafe in business. And he knows there's an Indigenous community right next door and he would love to learn how to engage with them so he can save his business. This is the teacher who wants to empower the Indigenous students that she sees are struggling. Maybe this is just a neighbor on your street. They see an Indigenous family moving in and they want to make friends, but because of Canadian history, they're not sure how to do that. That's Indigenous engagement. And there is one thing, thing that will destroy your success faster than anything. Let's talk about it. Foreign. 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 back with yet another week of information for you, videos that I hope add to your understanding and yes, add to your success in Indigenous engagement. The reality is, I mean, we talk about reconciliation, but the truth is Indigenous non Indigenous people living within Canadian borders have never worked together respectfully before. There was the whole colonization thing and removing us and casting us aside and excluding us from systems. Many, many Canadians have no desire to continue that way of being. They want to work with Indigenous people, but one, they're really nervous to make a mistake. Two, they have absolutely no desire to add more harm on Indigenous people. So three, they tend to not do anything even when Indigenous engagement would help them, like in the case of the small business owner. So that's kind of what I do. I swear at some point my career morphed and moved away. I still do a lot of First Nation empowerment. Do not get me wrong. I love my time in the communities helping first nations people of all different cultural backgrounds. I'm often in different treaty areas with different nations than my own and getting them to remember the strength of our teachings, the resilience that we carry that you can't speak of the trauma without speaking of the resilience. I love that work. But about eight years ago, my career kind of morphed and I started working on both sides of the feather. Which reminds me, that's an analogy I should probably explain to you because I use it a lot. Think of the sacred eagle feather. Videographer is going to put it in the corner for me. Thank you very much. I like to look at the eagle feather and think half of the eagle feather represents Me. The other half represents who I'm engaging with, whether it's one of my children, whether it's a friend, whether it's a colleague or coworker, or whether it's a viewer on YouTube. My work is on my side of the feather. Your work is on your side of the feather. So all those people that want to race into first nations communities to save us, please don't. Yes, we could use some expertise and support and encouragement, but I honestly believe that for Indigenous people, from an Indigenous perspective, it is just as important to remember that we have the ability to stand up as the actual standing up. We need to do our healing for ourselves. Someone else rescuing us is not empowerment. I need my allies working on the other side of the feather, shutting down the attacks, noticing when we're not in a room, notice when we're excluded from some new system or process that's being developed. We can't heal if nothing changes and the attacks don't stop. That's why we need our allies on the other side of the feather. When I say my career morphed and I started working on both sides of the feather, what I mean is I'm working with first nations communities as well as non Indigenous entities. And for me, that absolutely feels like balance. I realized years ago reconciliation cannot happen if the only work being done is on the first nations side. That's just colonial. And that's the problem I have with employment and training. And I've mentioned that before, that for years we've had training programs to help Indigenous people succeed in mainstream. Where's the corresponding training for non Indigenous employers to help them understand the challenges they're going to face when we come on board, that it's not just total assimilation. That's what I do. So several years ago, I started working on both sides of the feather and helped so many different groups increase their Indigenous engagement success over the years. So much of what I share with you guys is based on observation. I've been in my own business for 15 years, in my 15th year, and I did employment and training, working with Indigenous participants and non Indigenous employers for, like, more than 25 years. I've been doing this a long time. I got a lot of observation going on. But there is one thing, like I said in the opening, that it's like dynamite to the bridge when it shows up. That bridge is at such a risk of being destroyed, the trust disappears. And. And the trust was tentative at best. Keep in mind, Indigenous people, many Indigenous people, we don't trust non Indigenous on site. You can thank Canadian history for that. Don't blame us, that's survival. But they start trusting we're an optimistic lot and we work with yet another group and then something said and poof. So what am I talking about? Burying the lead here. What am I talking about? I'm talking about double speak. And double speak burns bridges. So again, I want to do this from both sides of the feathers. So let's start from the so called indigenous side. And I say it that way because the double speak I'm talking about is what we've been unpacking for the last couple weeks. The double speak of pretendience. Now I've warned you about this in another video and I hope your skills are improving and you're practicing this. Watch the wording. Watch the wording. If there's a rule, I need this, a neon lights flashing. Watch the wording. If someone's bio says they have been influenced by many indigenous elders, that is different from saying I am indigenous. That was the Joseph Boyden thing. Remember he was raised near a First Nation community. He was not First Nations. There's a difference what kind of else I have been told and what drives me nuts. Again, and I've said this before, these are not people just pretending to be indigenous. These are people pretending to be indigenous leaders that they're out there sharing their truth. Right. I met an individual who was known for public speaking and running events. Male who shared with me because I asked him, all right, like are you indigenous? The name he went by definitely implied he was indigenous. He was reaching out to me because he wanted to collaborate with me. And I get really, I get observant, I get really nervous about who I'm going to collaborate with. I take very carefully or take it very seriously where I'm going to put my name. I worked a long time to get here. I'm not just throwing that away. So universities. Are you listening? You need to adopt that attitude. Anyways, I reached out to him and I said, okay, first question. After he asked if I'd be interested in working with him. Are you Indigenous? Simple enough question. Just. Just tell me your answer. Are you sitting down? I got told he was an indigenous woman in his past life. I'm not going near that. I'm sorry. And maybe there's people out there that, that would work. No. Hard pass. No. So him using a spirit name that implied he was indigenous, that's double speak. It's saying something but not being authentic or transparent. It's like maybe implying something. That's what I mean by Double speak. So all of those iffy statements. Indigenous people, I get crucified all the time for being blunt. Blunt means you know where you stand. Blunt means you don't have to go off and wonder what I meant by it. Blunt in my world is respectful. I'm not going to waste your time and I'm not going to use double speak. So that's on the so called Indigenous side. On the non Indigenous side, There's a lot of. I'm going to backtrack for a sec. There's a lot of Indigenous people out there that are really nervous about the education system. Keeping in mind that Canadian history, the education system was used to tear Indigenous families apart, taking our children away and sending them to school. Now we have many cases of very well educated Indigenous people who can't even speak to a crowd of people from their own community anymore because the vocabulary they now carry what my mom would call $15 words. The communication isn't there. My mom was incredibly leery of big words because historically words were used to trick us. We're going to say this and we know you think that's what we meant, but sign the contract, sign the treaty. That's why we love the blunt directness. Then there was no iffy. Remember we're trying to build a bridge here. Iffy makes us nervous. So for example, recently, and this is a company I've worked with quite a long time and they were looking for a support letter for a new initiative they're starting and they are, excuse the expression, effing amazing at training programs. They've been running a training program for Indigenous youth for years. The confidence of the graduates blew me away. I'm starting to ask, what did you put in the food? I mean, joking of course. It's just phenomenal. So of course, like support letter. Why wouldn't I support this? Then I read the suggested wording and it was to support initiatives for marginalized people. I know as an Indigenous person who has worked with Indigenous communities and youth for many, many years that if you, even with other marginalized people, if Indigenous isn't the largest percentage in the room, we got marginalized out again, the voices will go quiet. It is not our space. It doesn't feel safe to us. It's not going to work. So seeing that phrasing made me nervous. I reached back, is this Indigenous specific programming? And they came back with, well, this is the umbrella, the new non profit that's going to offer many things including Indigenous specific programming. Did I send the support letter? No, I didn't because now, and I understand it, the corporation wants to accomplish these big things. There's always that PAN Canadian, that national initiative that doesn't work at the grassroots level. When you throw us all into one pot. Do I think programming for marginalized people is amazing? Absolutely. Do I think it's needed? Absolutely. Do I think we have the same challenges as other marginalized groups? Sometimes. But I'll tell you right now, when the Canadian government tries to put first nations and newcomers together, there are many first nations people that have an issue with that. You don't take the people that have been here the longest and think they're exactly the same as the brand new people. That's problematic. That's double speak. That non transparency that Maybe this is what it means. If you want to build strong, strong bridges. Be direct, be blunt, be honest. No generalities. No. Well, what we mean is because what you mean, what you're telling us you mean and what the decision might be by your board of directors six months from now can be totally different. And like me, many first nations people and communities are not going to walk on that bridge. Not until we know exactly what you're talking about. So I hope that made sense. Transparency is easy, except mainstream has taught you not to be. Don't play, don't show all your cards. If you're dealing with an audience or an individual or an entity that doesn't trust you, you better show all your cards. Because hidden cards, double speak is exactly what's going to burn the bridge. I hope that made sense. Can't wait to see your comments. I love your comments. I have so much to talk to you about this week, including how to interact in this indigenous centered space. Don't forget to subscribe and like and notifications and all that fun stuff. Check out my websites if you want to learn more and I'll see you tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye bye.