Sandi L. Boucher, from Seine River First Nation, explains how poverty actually looks from an Indigenous perspective. She describes real costs most people miss: dental care that forces you to skip paid work, laundry trips that mean missing shifts, doing math on groceries at checkout. Non-Indigenous Canadians often misunderstand Indigenous benefits and the financial barriers people face.
Questions this video answers
Sandi L. Boucher (Red Thunderbolt), woman of the Loon clan, member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory, Northern Ontario.
A July 24 blog post titled "thank you for all of the things you didn't know or didn't mention."
Approximately $400 per appointment, roughly every three months.
Appointments book about six months ahead.
Chapters
Bonjour, Meskopagan Queen Additione Konsman. 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 3 Territory in Northern Ontario. And I'm here with yet another week of blog posts and videos for your consideration, especially if you're a non indigenous Canadian. I like to share something that those people, non indigenous Canadians, have long been denied. And that's an Indigenous perspective I have no interest in attacking. I have no interest in invoking shame or guilt. But I need you to understand the reconciliation is personal. The reconciliation is involves emotions and people that have been hurt. It's the part of the conversation that people love to leave out because it might be uncomfortable. But making amends, apologizing and reconciling should be uncomfortable. If it was easy, we wouldn't have to do it. So this week the selection of blog posts are pretty personal, but I think they will highlight for you what it looks like to be indigenous in Canada or more what it feels like. Now, we're going to start off this week with a very personal blog post talking about, well, I'm going to highlight what poverty looks like because I'd be willing to bet you see it every single day and not where you think, let's talk about it. Foreign. So I'm Talking about the July 24 blog post in this video and it's called thank you for all of the things you didn't know or didn't mention. And it is a personal sharing. I happen to be at my dental specialist and my hygienist gave me a compliment. I have been fighting to get my teeth to a healthy stage for quite a while and at this last appointment she was like, wow, like things look really good. Kudos, Sandy. You've been doing a great job and it shows. And I appreciated the compliment, don't get me wrong. But what I couldn't help thinking about was all the things that she either didn't know or, or didn't acknowledge. And I'm going to lean hard on the didn't know. For example, yes, my teeth are in great shape now at $400 a pop per appointment approximately every three months. I am now in the financial position to be able to do that. And no, by the way, that is not covered by my status card. For those people that think think that the benefits we get are overreaching and all powerful. No, no, they're not. They're bare minimum, which is the problem. They're not even Enough to be considered minimal care by a dental authority. Anyways, I digress. So, yes, $400 a pop. The other thing that she wouldn't know, obviously, I'm a motivational speaker. Not obviously, but if you follow my work, you know, and I book my events probably eight weeks out, two to three months. These appointments book six months ahead. Now when I do an event, especially a full day event, I'm making thousands of dollars. I don't have a steady paycheck. My income is based on my seminars and my online products and whatever in the beginning I booked, they'd book. They book the dental appointment. But as it got closer, someone would want me to do a seminar on that day. The appointment's going to cost me 400 bucks. Or I could make thousands of dollars that'll cover a whole bunch of these appointments. So often in the beginning, I chose to reschedule the appointment. Except you try to do that. You now have an appointment another six months ahead. It would be ages in between my appointment. And don't think for one second I didn't get a lecture about it. But no one asked me why. And a couple times I remember even trying to explain it, how much money it cost me not only for the appointment, but in dollars. Missed. And finally, I got tired of the lectures. I got tired of the judgment and tired of the condemnation, and I turning down the seminars to make these appointments. So, yes, my teeth are in a great state now. And the last one, I live in a community that offers these services because the small little hometown that I grew up in, at that time, the dentist came into town on a train once a year and pretty much all they did was pull teeth. What are you going to do in one appointment a year? So all of this is to say, if someone's struggling, they're not making their appointments, they're not doing whatever. Maybe ditch the judgment. Like, does judgment ever help? Ditch the judgment and try to be a safe space, trying to find out why, See if there's any way you can help. I know back when I used to work for other people, back when my kids were little and I was a struggling single mom, I had to miss work a couple of times because I didn't have the change for the washing machine to wash my work clothes. That's what poverty looks like. Poverty. Standing in the grocery lineup and doing the mental math, praying that you added it up carefully when you were putting the things in your cart so that you don't overspend and spend more than in your bank account. Right? So yeah, I'm doing a great job now. But you know what? All of those people, all of my friends and acquaintances and family members who couldn't afford this, they're doing a great job, too. They're doing the best they can with what they got. And maybe that's the rule we need to remember. I hope that made sense, because so many indigenous people are living well below the poverty line and everyone thinks we got the benefits to. To cover it. No hard pass on that misinformation until tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.
