Who Can Tell Indigenous Stories (inc. Moontime Teaching)

Gray hair has a freaking mind of its own. Just saying. Just saying. Hello, you. I am Anishinaabe. If you follow my channel, you know that I'm an Ojibwe woman and stories are everything to us. Interesting side note, in mainstream, telling a story is like, it seems like it's derogative, like it's, it's not factual. They're just telling a story. Whereas to Anishinaabe, stories are everything. Stories are our history. Not that written someone's opinion, but our lived experience. That's where the value is. That's where the facts are. So today I wanted to touch on stories. I wanted to touch on the most important story and right along with that, the greatest responsibility if you're sharing stories. So let's talk about it. 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. Like I mentioned in the opening, I want to talk about stories. I love stories. I don't know, I don't think this is because I'm Anishinaabe, but definitely could have played into it. I was always one of those people who sent me with the elders, sent me with the people telling the stories. And I will sit there and listen all day. I don't care if I've heard the story five million times, I will sit there and listen to it. I am never the person. Are they done yet? No, I. I will get lost in the story. My ex husband could attest to that because when his dad, who loved telling a good story, started jogging, he would leave the room. He would also know he could come back in four hours and I'd still be sitting there listening. So if I were to ask you what is the most powerful story, what would you say? Now, some of you might be tempted to lean on the Bible or the stories in the Bible, the creation story, or even the non, like the indigenous creation story. Okay, I get your point. Not where I'm going. I know this to be true with everything in me. And I've seen so many examples of this truth. The most powerful story you will ever tell is yours. And if you don't believe me, then I want you to get your tush to a book reading because it is out of the world when an author reads their own words. Their words may be powerful when you read them. It is next level times a million when the author reads them. So keep that in mind. This is the author reading their own story. This is the survivor Describing the storm, the accident, whatever the case may be. There's the power in the words. That's the greatest story, the most powerful story, the greatest responsibility. Can you guess it? Is when for whatever reason, you are sharing someone else's story. Now, I have a rule. Well, I guess it's two parts to the rule. 99.9% of the time, you should not be sharing someone else's story, full stop. The exceptions, if that person has passed on and you now carry the responsibility of sharing those stories, like I do with my mom or you have been given permission. And I do carry a couple of those stories, and I always share who they are from and that I was given permission to carry those stories. And the reason why is the telephone game. And I've talked about this before, we played this game as children, maybe even as an icebreaker at a conference. You're sitting in the circle. One person in the circle whispers one sentence into the ear of the next person and then they pass it around the circle. And by the time you get to the end, the person says the sentence out loud. It is never even close to what the original sentence was. That's what happens when you tell another person's story. It is through your lens. You will use the phrasing you're used to. You will put the accents the way you would do it. And the story has changed, which is why non indigenous people cannot share indigenous teachings. Because you will not get the authentic teaching even if they try. It's going to go through the. The process of their worldview, their phrasing, their education, their experience, their emotional in, you know, their emotional investment in whatever this story is. It is not going to be the original teaching. That's why our allies, your only responsibility when it comes to sharing indigenous teachings is directing the person that's interested to the person you receive the indigenous teaching with, making that bridge, communicating, introducing each other. It is not to share teachings. If you have been fortunate enough to receive indigenous teachings, that was because someone felt you knew to respect the teachings, that you could use them for yourself, for the benefit of yourself and your family. At no time were you giving, given a teacher's certificate. That's where mainstream ego comes in. Well, I know this, so I can share this. That is not the ally's role. That is when the ally is overstepping. So along the lines of this, you only have the right to tell your own story, and that there is only very limited times when you have the authority to share another person's story. I don't think it's going to be hard for you to figure out why I detest gossip so much. For one, it's part of lateral violence. It's one of the things decimating our communities. So if you are dedicated to helping your community to heal, you can't be gossiping, because then you're the solution and the problem that's not getting anyone anywhere. Gossiping is literally telling another person's story. And you are definitely adding your slam to it. You're adding your judgment, your perception. Maybe you're even adding in what you think. They did it. You're not in their brain. You have no idea. You are literally going against our teachings every single time you gossip. You do not have the right to tell that story. And if someone asks you, well, I wonder why in the world they did that. There is only one answer to that. Did you figure it out? Go ask them. We have to stop talking behind people's backs and get way better at talking respectfully to their face, asking them, you know what? I was wondering why you did this. None of my business, really. I'm kind of concerned about you, though. Why did you do it? Okay, so. So many times there are so many of our teachings that have been worked out because someone else told them or because the hand of colonialism has tainted the teaching. One of them. And I'm going way out on a limb here. I do not share teachings as a general rule, but this one, to make a point, this one bothers me because it affects so many young women. I'm talking about moon time, that special time of the month for a woman. I've been in so many places, so many communities with so many young women, and it is our teachings that when a woman is on her moon time, she can attend ceremony. She can't touch the sacred items. She can't dance at powwow. There's so many different restrictions, and the problem is, over the years, the restrictions have been passed on without the teaching. These young women are being told, you can't do this, this, and this. And of course they're rebelling. We're warriors. Why in the world can't I. But no one explained to them why they can't. So I'm going to fill in that blank for you and feel free to share this with anyone who needs to share it. I can remember way back when, my elders are hilarious. And if you have an elder, you know what I mean? They love joking around, and they're. They're hilarious with their stories. And I had one of my female elders and she said to me, so, have you ever had pms? Of course, we're talking younger years here. I was like, have I ever had pms? Yeah, seriously. And she's like, okay, think about your PMS for a sec. Have you ever felt like, so like every cell in your body was just stressed out, intense to the point where you felt you could climb the wall with your nails? Like, it wouldn't even be difficult? And I laughed and I said, oh, yeah, been there, done that a million times. Then she looked at me in a very serious. With a very serious face and a very serious voice and said, that's how strong you are. That is your physical body trying to contain your spiritual power. And the problem is, if you haven't been taught how to channel it, it's going to come out negative. You're going to bite someone's head off. You're going to say things you don't mean. You're going to be rude or ignorant to your partner or children. That's because you haven't learned. You haven't learned to respect that time and remove yourself. So you can just honor that you're already in ceremony. It's not about attending ceremony. You're in ceremony at that time. So all those young girls out there that have heard they can't do this, this, or that. The teaching that people forgot to tell you, our teaching is that if a woman on her moon time touches a sacred item, the sacred item loses all its power. You will absorb it. You are asked not to attend powwow, not to attend ceremony, not to touch sacred items, not because there's something wrong with you, not because you're dirty, which so many are made to feel like they are. It's to protect the items. It's to protect the people in the items at powwow, because you will literally absorb it all. Our teach, this is like your first lesson in self confidence, self value, self worth, whichever way you want to describe it. When you're on your time, this is your time. You're in ceremony. Traditionally, you should not be expected to cook. You should not be expected to wait on anyone else. You shouldn't be expected to do anything but be in ceremony. Take your time. This is why traditionally women were off in their little wigwam all by themselves. So that they could think, they could plan, they could contemplate what has happened lately. They could build their wisdom and learn how powerful they are. And I'd be willing to bet you've never heard that before. Or if you did, you heard a warped out version of it. Telephone game. That's why other people should not be telling our stories and definitely not our teachings. You've heard me talk about Indian time before. That's another one that gets warped out so bad. As my elders love to say, we need to remember who we were before the others came. That's going to take a lot of unpacking. There's been generation upon generation of colonial influence. The rule I always tell the young women I work with, our teachings at their core are empowering. They are to remind you how strong you are if you have heard a teaching that makes you feel less than. That teaching is either incomplete or has been warped by colonialism. And you need to go seek out your elder and find the rest of the story. Because none of our teachings are disempowering. We have to value our stories so that we can lean on them and so we can teach them. Remember, we're going to show them how. One of the things that the residential school era destroyed was the chain of teachings. An 8 year old young girl always had a 14 year old young girl to ask questions up. The 14 year old had a young woman in her early 20s. 20s had someone in their 30s or 40s and the 40s had an elder. We got to put those chains back together. We're not meant to do this alone. And all the people that feel alone is because they haven't repaired their chain yet. So not only find who you can confide in, but remember to be that person for the person that comes next. Show them how. I hope that made sense. Remember your story. You have the power to change a room, change an attitude, change direction by sharing your story. And no one else has the right to share that story. And all of those people out there gossiping, stop it. We can do better. Until next time. I love you. Take care. Bye bye.