The Root Cause of So Many Conflicts

Okay. No surprise to you if you've watched any of my videos, but I have a question for you. I'm gonna list off four groups, and I want you to tell me, what do they have in common? So the first one is. Oh, I guess it's not. Well, yes, it is. Did that make any sense to you? Of course not. The first group are Indigenous people, especially as it relates to Canadian history with Indigenous people. Two, lgbtqiap, three, the whole problem of transphobia, and four, the alt right. So the question is, what is a root cause of all of the problems for these groups? And there's many problems playing into this, but there's one thing they have in common. So Indigenous people, especially as it relates to Canadian history, how Canadian Canadians and Canada have treated Indigenous people, lgbtqiap, transphobia, and the alt right. What's the root cause, the one problem they have in common? 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 as I mentioned in the opening, I wanted. I was thinking of all these groups that are going through so much, and these are not the only groups, but I was thinking of Indigenous people and all that has been done to us by Canada or the people before it became Canada, and the LGBTQIAP group and all they're enduring and trans. Oh, my God, the transphobia is insane. And of course, the alt right then has its definite opinions on things. And I realized they had something in common. So do you remember this picture of the two row wampum? And this is actually a Mohawk teaching. It's not Anishinaabe teaching. And this particular belt represents a treaty that was signed between the British settlers. No, the Dutch and the Haudenosaunee, The Iroquois or Mohawk. And as I've explained before, this is a physical representation of a treaty. The white parts of the Tubra Wampum belt represented water. One of the blue navy bead strips represented the Honosaunee canoes, the long canoes, and the other strip represented the European ships. And what they believed they were agreeing to the Indigenous people was that settlers would run their communities and stay in their lane and do it as they saw fit. And the Haudenosaunee would be able to do same in their communities and that they would travel down the river together, side by side, but never crossing into the other's lane. So historical representation of a treaty. And now let's talk about the feather Teaching for a second that I've spoken about a hundred times in that using the feather to remind you that the there's two sides. There's one half of the feather represents you, the other half of the feather represents the person you're talking to or in relationship with. And at no time are you supposed to cross to their side of the feather. It's not about telling them how to live their life. It's about coming together and rep and respecting that they do things their way and you do things your ways. And that does not mean you can't bring that feather together. Now why would I mention the two row wampum and the feather teaching? Well, this is what I wrote. All this backlash, the anti woke movement, the anti indigenous, the anti trans in my humble opinion is a whole bunch of people telling others how to live their lives or what their identity is. Do you know your identity? I do. We all do. Now of course there is an exception to this rule. There always is. The pretendians, right? The people pretending to be indigenous or the descendants because they have one person way back in their history, all of a sudden they're indigenous. They know that's baloney and they are choosing so they know their identity. They know that that indigenous person is six generations ago or they know that there's no indigenous teachings, heritage, experience, culture or people in their family tree. So they still know their identity. They are choosing to present differently. And by the way, I'm going to go off on a tangent for a second because something happened on the weekend and like I love my career, I love the work I do, I take such comfort from it every single day. People, you know, understanding more people having their eyes open to the reality. Less judgment, more understanding or compassion. It's awesome. But in all honesty, I'm really starting to lose focus faith in our allies ability to hang on to their humility. I'm going to repeat that I am rapidly beginning to lose faith in our allies ability to hang on to their humility. And I say that because one too many times I have seen someone who has dedicated themselves to supporting indigenous people, a non indigenous person, to be clear, dedicated themselves to working with indigenous people, supporting them, becoming friends with them, truly becoming allies, respectful, loving these people. All of that is absolutely beautiful. But more often than not, all of a sudden that person presents to the world they're indigenous. I'm sorry. No, no. Why? And here's the question that breaks my heart. Why can't you be my friend and still be not indigenous? Why is the only way you can respect and love indigenous people is to become one. Like, is it so far out of your realm to love and respect and care for indigenous people without being indigenous that you have to pretend you are? And I understand, like, the excuse I hear all the time is shame. Well. Well, I knew about this person in my family, but we were taught not to talk about it. If there's one person in your family four generations ago, you're not indigenous, why are you now being ashamed of all your other cultural puzzle pieces? If you were raised French, if you were raised Italian, if you were raised Finn, like, what is the problem with those cultures? What? Because indigenous is getting attention? That would make you a pretendian. If you're doing it for the. The warm, fuzzy feelings that people. And by the way, if you're under any illusion that it's all warm fuzzy feelings towards indigenous people, that proves you're not indigenous, because it's not an easy freaking road. So quit telling us who we are. Quit telling other people what their identity is own. Yours, your authentic identity, not the identity you wish you were, or you're choosing that one piece out of your puzzle piece. It's just so frustrating. And I know. Well, I don't know. But I can assume that for lgbtqi, QQIAP plus people to be told they're choosing to be gay, that they're choosing to be trans. I don't choose to be indigenous. I am. I actually got asked that years ago because I'm fair. They said, why don't you just tell people that you're French like your dad? That's not who I am, and that's not who I was raised to be. And I'm not jumping on that train, the train that told my mom she had to be ashamed of who she was. I'm not playing. So quit telling other people how to live their lives. Quit telling them who they are, and quit pretending you're something you're not. Because we know it's baloney. And the only one that are buying it are the naive people that you're leading down that road. And we will call it out. I have zero use for pretending descendants pretending to be an indigenous voice. You know what? You want to be proud of that one puzzle piece, you make sure that everyone knows it's one puzzle piece. Otherwise, you're not being authentic. You're stealing space. You're using your voice where it should not be heard. And for us indigenous who have paid the price, who had the rhythm and the blues. Stop it. So what do you think? You think that's the root cause. People crossing the line, crossing over to the other side of the feather, forgetting to stay in their lane. I know there's many reasons, but that's a common thread. I definitely see. Forgive me the rant. It had to be said. Until tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.