When One Culture Interprets Another (& the Mess That Results!)

So much harm has been done over the years and all over this planet when one culture tries to interpret the actions of another. We're talking about cultural lens. We're talking about a whole bunch of misinterpretations and they are happening on this YouTube channel. We need to talk about it. Bonjour, Mishko Pagan. Hi, everybody. My name is Andy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Trini 3 Territory in Northern Ontario. And today we're talking about the insanity that happens that results from one culture trust trying to interpret the actions of another. And this happens all the time. And again, you don't need intent to cause harm. 90 not. I'm not going to give a percentage to it. I don't know what the percentage. But a lot of people do not mean to cause harm. But when you look at the actions of someone else that belongs to a different culture and you're interpreting it the way you see it without asking questions, you got a way better chance of misinterpreting than you do getting it right. And then if you want to get into the well, that's ridiculous, they should do it this way. Well, that's just judgment and that's not building any bridges. Again, as I mentioned in the beginning, what we're talking about is cultural lens. And this is so much easier for me to explain to people now that I'm old enough to have to wear glasses. Your cultural lens is made up of everything you've seen and heard and been taught and experienced since the day you were born. It is literally the lens you look through at the world. I always look at every interaction as Anishinaabe, as an Ojibwe woman. I have no idea what it looks like to, to a white man, especially a youth, another age, like another difference. But if I ask, then it's the back to back teaching I talked about. Remember two people standing back to back, both of them can see so much of the room, but there's one part they can't see, the part that happens to be directly in front of the other person. So when I ask someone, what does this look like to you? I have a greater chance if I listen and believe them, then I have a greater chance of seeing the entire room. Misinterpretations have been happening in Canada, well, in the land now called Canada since the settlers first arrived. And I always like to, I think in cartoons I do it. It's a fun way to be. I highly recommend It. And I always like to think of the first little settler. And I, yes, I picture him as like a round headed, little body, Bugs Bunny type settler. Thank you. Semini's Am kind of thing. No, Elmer Fudd. That's who I'm thinking of. Sorry. But I picture him coming into the. The first Ojibwe encampment. He comes across, keeping in mind that the only cultural lens he has is his experiences from Europe when he's been taught is the norm. This is where we go wrong. People think that what's normal for me is normal for everyone. That is not correct. When you come to cross cultural relationships, the way certain groups of people do things is totally different than other groups. We know this. Look at the food, look at the songs, look at the even sporting events. Totally, completely different. And we still want to enforce how we do things on other people. So back to Elmer Fudd, settler here. Imagine him walking into a community, only his cultural lens. And he starts looking around and he doesn't see a town hall, the kind he's used to. And his little brain goes, oh, my God, these people don't govern themselves. Now, if he had looked in one of the teepees, he would have seen the council sitting around a fire discussing things. So his interpretation is wrong. It's also really easy to see how he went there based on his cultural lens. So he keeps walking. He doesn't see a jail. He doesn't see any teepees you can break out of. He doesn't see any structure with bars. And he thinks, oh, my God, they don't police themselves. Again, wrong answer. Keeps walking. He doesn't see his school, you know, the little building with the really pointy roof and the grumpy lady at the front. No. So he thinks we don't educate ourselves. Wrong again. And the one that decimated indigenous people, he didn't see a church, so he assumed we had no spirituality. That is what happens when one culture tries to interpret another. And we see it all the time. We see it. I hear it every single day. 4. Do I want to share this? I'm going to give it as an example. I'm not going to go full in depth on the teaching because I don't know who's watching. Some things you just share with people who have earned the right to hear it. But for very specific reasons. As Anishna and by the way, none of our teachings to the quays out there, the indigenous women out there. Indigenous teachings are empowering. Indigenous female teachings are empowering. If you have heard Some version that's disempowering. It has been twisted by colonialism and you need to unpack that. You need to change that. If you need help with that, I am an email, email away. Keep that in mind. So for very empowering reasons. As Anishna Bay Kwei, I don't step over things. If you dropped your shoes in the middle of the floor, I'm not stepping over your shoes. If you were my partner and I've had this happen and you know you're leaving your clothes laying around on the floor, I am not stepping over them. So I don't know about, I don't know where you are, but where I grew up in a small northern Ontario town, we had a lot of house parties when I was younger. And you come in the kitchen door because no one used the front door. Cultural thing. You came in the kitchen floor, kitchen door and all over the floor. It always seemed like there was 50 pairs of shoes. Just people kicked off their shoes and went in. I'm not going to walk over those shoes. I'm not going to announce and give people crap for not putting their shoes neatly. But I would make a little path, kind of nicely put the shoes together if they seem to be there, or just move them out of the way and then walk in. There are people that could have watched me and thought, like, what a snot. She thinks she has to clean up the place. Why doesn't she just mellow out? Or, you know, who does she think she is? None of that. I am actually respecting the people by not walking over their shoes. So I wonder what that sound was. That was weird. So that's a teaching that could be totally misinterpreted by people watching me. And that's a modern day example. So what I wanted to share with you today because in case you didn't figure this out, my YouTube channel is Indigenous centered space. Another term you may not be familiar with. The large percentage of Canada is non indigenous centered. It is designed and built to support largely white men. Let's get real. So white heterosexual men and anything out of that norm, it doesn't fit as well, right? It's white, male, cisgendered, centered. Not in my world, not in my office, not in my home, not in my seminars, not on this YouTube channel. It is indigenous centered and that means sometimes if you're a non indigenous person reading or watching a video, you may hear something that is like, what? Why do you do that? Or why do you say that? Or why do you feel that way? That's the one I kept saying seeing in the comments. Why? Why do you think? Why did you feel you had to say that? So what I wanted to share with you today, it's a teaching that is going to help you navigate this indigenous centered space. It might actually help you in other spaces that are not of your culture that are centered on some other culture. Again, if you're not familiar, I just want to give one more example on indigenous centered going to a powwow. I think most people that attend a powwow, non indigenous people that attend a powwow know that it's not run or following the rules of any kind of gathering they've been to. So they're conscious of the fact that it's not centered on their cultural practices. What you may not have realized is this YouTube channel isn't centered on on non indigenous cultural practices. So I wanted to share something that my mom used to say all the time and it is just so helped me stop myself from misinterpreting the actions of another person. So here it is. My mom used to say that if you see someone doing something, saying something, not doing something, whatever it is, if you see them doing something, that you would never do that it seems totally left field insane to you. Instead of judging, instead of saying what the heck, ask yourself, how scared would I have to be, how overwhelmed would I have to be, how isolated would I have to feel, how marginalized would I have to feel to make that seem like a good solution that pulls you out of the realm of judgment and into compassion and empathy? Because we love to judge those people struggling with addictions, yet we don't take enough time to contemplate what are these people running away from, what are they trying to avoid, what are they trying to forget? So I know I have friends from so many different cultural backgrounds and sometimes they do things that make zero sense to me. Like I've always said, I don't need to understand it. We got to back away from that. That white supremacist. I need to understand it. No, you don't. You need to accept it. Accept it as important to me. It doesn't change what's important to you. It is not a threat to what's important to you to recognize what's important to me. It's not going to hurt you if I refuse to step over your shoes. I'm just going to have them nicely lined up at the door for you. So I hope that helps. What I would love for you to do, and this is, maybe this is being unrealistic and optimistic again and God knows I've been accused of that before. But I know so many of you have commented that you learned so much from my videos. I think if you're careful and please practice your self care game. But I think you can also learn so much from the comments on my videos. Watch from an observer standpoint, I mean jumping in there with your opinion. We do that way too often. Mainstream does that way too often. They want to comment on things they don't understand. Sit back and observe. You got a greater chance of understanding than talking or typing. But start observing the comments and start, you won't start seeing as I did, people saying, well why did you do that? Why did you say that? Why didn't you just do this? Don't ask me, ask yourself, why do I think she did that? Obviously it was important to her to name her first nation and clan at the beginning of her video. Why would she do that? By doing that you're starting to build the bridge. So all of this is part of the learning journey. And yes, I am still deleting the attacks. I am deleting. You know, someone wants to share an opinion and they're non indigenous or don't know about the topic or worse, they want to support indigenous by attacking another group. Gross. And depending on the comment it'll either get removed or you'll just get deleted. The other thing, I have some indigenous commenting on my channel and 99% of the times the comments are absolutely welcome. They add to the learning process. But I acknowledge, have to acknowledge that there are many indigenous people that do not trust non indigenous that have no interest in reconciliation, do not see that as a possibility. Those that opinion, even though I understand, I know where it's coming from and I respect that, that's their opinion. That's not going to help on this channel. That is not going to help us reconcile. And I believe in reconciliation. So for those people, I suggest you go create your own channel. And there you can say, say all you want to say and defend your opinions here. What is allowed are the questions and comments that are going to help bring us together. Because judgment burns bridges. So does ego, humility, humble questions builds them. You've heard me say this before. So the next I don't care if it's same cultural background or not. If you see someone doing something you would never do, ask yourself what state you would have to be in to make that decision. That's a really good chance you'll start to understand how they're looking at the world through their cultural lens of experience. Tomorrow I have a very special video for you. Totally different, but based on comments, I think many of you are going to appreciate it. Until tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye bye.