Where YOU Need to be Doing Your Reconciliation Work

This is it, guys. This is what you get. Crazy hair, no makeup, stuff on the floor that still needs to be unpacked. It's paperwork day. It's meeting day in my world. And honestly, this doesn't matter to me. This matters to me. Us having a conversation, us building a bridge, us coming together, us understanding each other more. Indigenous and non Indigenous actually spoken, spending some time talking. But if there's one thing I know for a fact, it is for many, many people. Not all of us, but many people. It is so much easier for me to point fingers and talk about what you should do rather than look at what I should do. It is the problem that has been the problem since the settlers arrived. People working on the other side of the feather where they have no power. By the way, you can make the greatest impact on your side of the feather working with people that are like you. If you're non Indigenous, you should be working with non indigenous on reconciliation efforts. If you're Indigenous, you should be working with Indigenous people on reconciliation efforts. Yeah, it should be whatever the side is, you should be healing and learning and growing and finding new ways of doing things. Because repeating the past, even if it's in aimed at someone else, is not going to change anything. And that's what I wanted to talk about today. Because on a daily basis I deal with the non Indigenous who judge indigenous and I help them to realize how wrong they are and just how much they're advertising to the world that they don't know the information they need. And I work with Indigenous trying to get them past the habits that do not serve us. The gossiping and the bullying and the criticizing and the condemning. We got to go back to community thinking. Blue wants to be part of this video. And I have no idea what her problem is. She's being a little needy this morning, but. And maybe that's it. We all need love and attention. Give yourself love and attention. You have the power to do that. So today I wanted to touch on. Where are you? Come here. Come here. If you're gonna make so much noise, then you're gonna join us for this video. Come here. Okay, there's my Blue. She wants to be part of the video. We're going to talk about the critics today and for once, because I spend almost every day now talking to and working with the non indigenous people, the judge indigenous people. Today I'm going to the other side of the feather. Today I'm doing some work on my side of the feather. I'm talking to the indigenous, especially the Ones that want to criticize, let's talk about it. Bonjour. Hi everybody. My name is Sandy Boucher. My is name. 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 guess the question I have to ask, and I think I know the answer, really not happy with the answer, is when you choose to comment on one of my videos, do you think for a second of what your comment will do to me? Now, do not get me wrong. I have some amazing supporters on my YouTube channel and they comment regularly and they're supportive and they're encouraging and they share what they have learned or how much they have learned. I mean, they are pure fuel and I think creator every single day for them. And if that's you, thank you. But then what I've been seeing of late are indigenous comments, usually dripping in negativity, usually critical. And I have to ask why? Because now don't get me wrong, there is that one we all think the same is total bs. So the fact that an indigenous person may disagree with what I say is common. I disagree with a lot of indigenous people. That doesn't mean I don't respect the fact that whatever they just said or what they believe is based on their experience and, and their life journey. I can respect that. I don't need to argue with them because I'm probably standing in their space and I can just respect and I can learn from everyone's teacher, even if they're helping me to define what I believe and even if it's different from what the teacher just said. So but I watched these comments now, correct? I wrote something down, of course. I have a handy dandy index card. The indigenous people that come on here and say, interesting, that's not how our nation looks at it. But, you know, thanks for sharing. That is a supportive, that's probably a healed person. That's person that's done some work. Those comments love, absolutely love the people that comment. Well, that's different than mine. And maybe even go on to share how their nation views something beautiful. That's a teaching that is sharing more teaching with the other people that are reading the comment. Love it. I'm not talking the ego trip because there are people, indigenous and non, that come on my YouTube page and my videos and try to use it as their platform. And that's where my brain goes. It's like, okay, that's your comment. Where's your YouTube channel? Where's like, are you sending in the cheap seats are you in the arena? To quote Roosevelt and Brene Brown. Right. Like, it's really easy to spit it out in criticism of me, but where are you putting yourself out? Right? So that comes to mind because there's a price to be paid, and it is really easy to criticize. And. And I see this every day in our First Nation communities. A youth is gutsy enough to say they want to go to college, and. And some arrogant, unhealed, ignorant adult says, why bother? It's never going to change anything. The problem is it's not the arrogant person that pays the price. It's the youth that pays the price because they give up on their dream that could have changed their life. So Indigenous speaking to you today. What are you doing? Are you planting seeds or pouring more gasoline on the soil we're trying to grow in? I want you to get better at celebrating the efforts of other indigenous people, even when you don't agree with them, celebrate the fact that they're trying to use their voice. Encourage that and quit it with the gasoline. There's. There's enough negativity in our world, and maybe that's why you're so negative. But you can choose to move to better soil. And I don't mean physically move out of your community. I mean create good soil. My home is good soil. My world is good. So there's still insanity outside. I don't need to live in the middle of it. So what I'm asking you today is think before you hit the return key, you know, to. To post the comment. You can disagree. I. And, and it's not about disagreeing. It's about sharing and teaching. Take the role as a teacher if you so choose. Like I said, when I see. Wow, that's interesting. Thanks for sharing. It's not how we do it. And then the sharing of how they do it, that is phenomenal. That's two people supporting each other. That is you clearly saying, well, you're not wrong, but neither am I. And that's beautiful and that's healthy, and that's a sign of healing. But attacks. Who do you think you are? And especially. Here's another line I'm gonna draw. I'm Canadian. I announce that at the beginning of every video, I'm working on Canadian Indigenous reconciliation. But the Americans that comment on my videos, and even the American Indigenous, and that's not how we do things here. Wrong space. And I understand, like, I have met some. Some people living within US Borders that just. There's that arrogance again, right? If it applies to me. It applies to you. And my world view is the worldview. No. Feel free to come here. Feel free to listen, feel free to learn, feel free to share if your nation does it differently, but do it not in condemnation, but in sharing. Think, sharing. Circle. Think. Sitting at my kitchen table. Haven't used that phrase in ages because we can complain and whine that mainstream isn't doing the work, but are we? I always think of my mom at this point because she used to say, teach other people how to treat you. And it's not how you treat them, it's how they see you treating you. If you want them to respect you, they have to see you respecting you. If you want them to listen to your boundaries, then you have to listen to your boundaries. If you want them to be kinder to you, you have to be kinder to you. And right now, imagine, wave my magic wand that Canada and Canadians start treating first nations people the way we treat each other. I don't think that would be an improvement right now because we have a lot of healing to do, and it starts with planting seeds rather than pouring gasoline. We got to get better at thinking about what comes out of our face. And I understand there's a whole bunch of people that have not had the opportunity to heal. That does not give you the right to hurt other people. I have clear boundaries and I respect them. Even on my YouTube channel. I hope that made sense. And you know what? Indigenous or not, how about think twice about the words you shared today. The email you send, the text you send. Maybe don't hit send when you're upset. Maybe consciously plant seeds rather than pouring gasoline. Makes sense. I think I might have to go fix myself before my first meeting. But you know what? You and I, we made over the kitchen table for coffee. I knew you wouldn't mind if I showed up. Like I just rolled out a bed. Even though I can hear my mom saying right now that I look like something the cat dragged in. The cats are here. They don't mind. Until tomorrow, my friend. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.