Sandi L Boucher, Anishinaabe Kwe of Seine River First Nation, argues that trust is the second essential step toward reconciliation after relationship. She calls on Indigenous people to be discerning about where they spend money, and on non-Indigenous people to practice transparency. She also demands concrete changes in hiring clauses and Indigenous-specific healthcare services.
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Hello, you absolutely amazing person, you. A while back I identified what I believe is the first essential step that is going to take us from truth to reconciliation. In other words, truly bringing this country together, Indigenous and non indigenous, truly working together respectfully and sustainably. But today we better talk about the second essential step because it's about this far behind the first one. Let's talk about it. Bonjour Mishko Pagana Kasmando Dam. 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 a while back, I identified the first essential step to take us from truth to reconciliation. And, and I believe with everything in me that that is relationship that you have to have the desire to reconcile. You have to want a relationship with non indigenous people or with indigenous people, depending on which side of the feather you're standing on. And if you don't have a desire for that, well then there's no incentive to reconcile. I think that's pretty self explanatory. Today is going to be one of those lightning bolt videos because we need to talk about the second essential step and that's trust. And what I mean by that is as an Indigenous woman, as Anishinaabe Kwe, I have to work on being able to trust non Indigenous people. I have to unpack my stereotypes and my preferences prejudices and be willing to and open to working with non Indigenous people. I have to trust that they want to genuinely reconcile and work with us. That's not easy and I know a lot of Indigenous people just went what? It's not any easier on the non indigenous because in case you haven't figured it out yet, non Indigenous have to work on being trustworthy and that's easier said than done. What it's going to take is a plan and that's what I want to talk to you about today. And yes, I have handy dandy index cards. I haven't done that in a long time. Now, before I go any further, this next part is not or is Indigenous specific. So non indigenous, just like on TikTok, you can scroll away now or actually in this case to be accurate, you can skip to the end of the video because I will have a point for you. But right now this next part is Indigenous specific. So to the Indigenous people watching this, I know you know what I'm about to say. We have all encountered or maybe tried to work with to a variety of different Levels. Those companies that are pretending, they are pretending to care, they are pretending that they want to change things. They are pretending they want to reconcile. Some even go as far as saying they want to decolonize to be able to work with us better. But they turn out at the end of the day they're in it for the one thing and that's making money. And then there's a whole other group of non indigenous companies. They're so flipping racist. They're not even going to pretend that they need to decolonize. They're still blaming us for absolutely everything. We're the ones that are not employable. We're the ones that didn't get our economy together. They know nothing about history. They have no idea that we weren't allowed to build an economy in our communities and, and that we were segregated from everything that happened in mainstream. You could go get a loan, we couldn't. You could hire a lawyer, we couldn't. There are so many things. And those companies, that second group, they're so racist, they still honestly believe that all indigenous people are impoverished. They have no idea how many of us are doing just fine and contributing and making a difference by choosing where we spend our hard earned dollars. And that's the point I want to make. This is going to ruffle a few feathers and I don't care. Three words. Stop buying conservative. Stop buying conservative. And what I mean is the conservative mandate of money over people. If you are more concerned about making money than caring about the people in your family, in your community, on, in your neighborhood, whatever, then you are officially part of the problem, right? If you are honestly okay with a fellow human being out in the cold and not doing anything to help them, how in the world do you sleep at night? Now one of the areas that you're going to get. Listen, just don't believe me. Listen, listen to the conservative talking points. They're always trying to sneak in this idea of prioritizing health care, meaning if I have the money, I get to see a doctor faster. That's not universal health care. That's. And every single time a private clinic opens, it's drawing nurses and people out of the public safety system, which makes the public system even worse. Right? So if they're prioritizing health care, privatizing health care, I should say making it private not a priority. Privatizing health care. Don't buy from them, don't support them, don't work with them. That's putting your money where it should be to make a difference. First nation communities have budgets. Okay. By the way, while we're talking about health care, I need to see some indigenous specific hospitals staffed like yesterday, like now. Indigenous nurses, indigenous doctors. I need to see smudging. I need to see elders walking around all over the place. I need to see families allowed there to help support with the healing. Because we understand it's not just an individual patient, it's never just the individual, it's the family. And then it allows for community support. We need that. And then let's shift down to health care for a second and let's talk about resource development because that's the one that constantly crosses into our traditional territories. I can't be any more clear about this. No more signing any agreement with any company that has a clause that says they guarantee to hire X number of our people. Now that may sound great, but here's what I want to change it to. There has to be a clause that says they are going to hire and retain X number of our people. Because it is really easy to hire a big bunch of us and then just let us go because we're not qualified to do it. No, they got to put in the effort because guess what, they still get the resources, but we don't end up with the skills or the experience. I think our people should be retained. As long as there's resources they're extracting, as long as they're getting a benefit, we should get a benefit that they have to retain a certain level of our people. Not just hiring. No more, just bare minimum baloney. In case you haven't figured it out, my mom would say it crystal clear. No more supporting two faced people. You don't trust them, don't work with them, you don't trust them, don't support them, you don't trust them, don't partner with them, make sure that they don't get one red dime. Do you see what I did there? Red dye. You know what I mean? Come on now we can do, we deserve better. We need better. And that starts with us. And for the non indigenous, they may have just come back and joined me. Like I said in the beginning, your assignment work on being trustworthy. I need you to look up the definition of transparency and actually start practicing it. Don't. No more telling us the bare minimum. No more deciding on a solution without us. Nothing for us or about us. Without us we can do better. Indigenous, start controlling where your money goes. Non indigenous do better because that's how we build relationships. One, that we want to and two, that we can actually trust. You to want to be in a real relationship with us. And vice versa. Until next time. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.
