A short YouTube talk by Sandi L. Boucher asserting that Indigenous youth’s challenges are rooted in hostile environments, not personal failings. Boucher uses the metaphor of a flower and gasoline to describe racism, exclusion, and assimilation, calls for guaranteed safety, allyship, and systemic change (especially in educational and workplace settings), and closes with a personal sign-off and invitation to engage.
Chapters
When a flower doesn't bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower, because there's nothing wrong with the flower. Today, let's finish off this week by talking about the environment which Indigenous people are trying to grow, specifically our youth, because once again, there's misinterpretations going on and I need your help with something. Let's talk about it. Foreign. Diane Goma Mishko Pagan Addition to hi everybody. My name is Andy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Saint River First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory in Northern Ontario. And today I wanted to talk about that finger pointing that is still happening just drives me nuts, people pointing at youth in general, and in my case, Indigenous youth is where I'm focusing on. They can do more, they should do better. They're not focused, they're not trying hard enough, they're lazy. They just want to be a drain on the public coffers and all of the usual stereotypical crap. You heard the quote I shared at the beginning of this video. When a flower doesn't bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower. And you have probably heard me say that when it comes to Indigenous youth, they are trying to grow in soil doused in gasoline. And that's where I need your help, because I'm working every single day to try to change the environment. I can't even count how many colleges and universities I've worked with that and really stress the importance of safe spaces, going as far in true Red Thunderbolt, lightning bolt style to say, and I'm going to say this to you as well, if you can't guarantee our safety, you have no right to invite Indigenous peoples into your space. Period. If you cannot guarantee our safety, you have no right inviting Indigenous peoples into your space. Why? We've suffered enough. Would you want your child, your partner going into a space where they're going to get attacked? And by the way, if you've never experienced experienced racism for one, lucky you two, it's like a gut punch. It instantly silences you. You feel incredibly embarrassed and centered out and it's really hard to say something in response, which is why we need our allies. So why I work so much in employment and training still with employers to help them understand if you want to retain Indigenous employees, create a safe space. If they have to endure the jokes that aren't funny and all the racism and stereotypes that is so common in a in a job site for the same amount of money as the people that don't have to endure that, I'm sorry they're not staying. And that's not because they're lazy, not ambitious, or like being impoverished. It's because the price is too high. So what I need you to realize is a flower needs light to grow. A flower needs good soil to grow. Racism is darkness. Assimilation. Forcing us to be like you, like non indigenous people is gasoline. Judgment is darkness. Exclusion is gasoline. Together we can do this. I have advocated for together since I started this career. Together we can create the environment in which we can all grow. And for indigenous people, it's time. Because trying to grow in gasoline is not growth at all. I hope that made sense. I hope you got value out of this week's videos. Please comment below. Don't forget to subscribe and if you'd rather receive these videos in your own inbox, then please head to sandybouchet ca or.com and sign up to be on my email list. Thank you so much for coming out today this week. As you may have noticed, I have a slightly new intro that I'm practicing as I'm trying to reclaim some of my own language. Numina win Diane Gibi, Jay Oma. It means I'm grateful that you came here and I hope you come back. Until tomorrow? Nope, it's Friday until next week. Have an amazing weekend and I'll talk to you soon. I love you. Take care. Bye Bye.
