Sandi L Boucher (Red Thunderbolt, Loon clan, Seine River First Nation) reflects on public awareness of Canadian reconciliation. She is surprised many non-Indigenous people have little or no knowledge of reconciliation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the 94 Calls to Action, or Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls recommendations. She asks viewers to do an informal survey of their non-Indigenous acquaintances (scale 1–10) and share results in the comments to help assess how much outreach remains.
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Foreign. Hello everybody. It's Sandy Boucher here once again. 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 today's why video. So we're looking at the May 25 blog post today, and it was called a survey of sorts. And so yesterday, by the way, if you want to watch any of these why videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don't miss any of them and you get to watch them when it's convenient for you. I do realize you probably have a really busy life, but this yesterday it was all pride and I'm enjoying the unpacking I've done and replace shame with Indigenous pride. And it feels really good. And today's post was kind of, wow, there's a lot of work left to do. And I had. I was reaching out for help from my followers, from the people that read my blog posts. And now I'm really reaching out to you as well as you watch this video. So what I realized, obviously when I'm in seminar, someone has hired me to come speak about truth and reconciliation. The people in the room have some degree of knowledge of the whole process of reconciliation or what it is or why we want it. And it may be just a very beginning knowledge, but there is some knowledge there. And I guess I'm getting out more now. I'm finally over the the lockdown shock and I'm out there meeting people. And it never ceases to amaze me how many non Indigenous people still have no clue what reconciliation is. Have no clue that Canada is trying to do things differently with Indigenous people. No clue that things are changing, no clue as to why they should change. They don't even know what the word reconciliation means. They know if they got in a fight with their wife or husband, but that's about the extent of that. They have no concept of Canadian reconciliation. Never heard of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the 94 calls to action. Never asked them, but probably haven't heard of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls recommendations either. And it always just blows me away. And of course I understand. I'm Indigenous. This is like my every breath I take. But how do you not watch the news at all? Like, how? So my question for you was, could you do me a favor? Ask the people in your world, not your Indigenous friends, your non Indigenous friends, and ask them if they know anything about reconciliation. Now, if you work for an Indigenous nonprofit or your nonprofit works with Indigenous People, obviously it's going to skew the numbers. I'm talking like your next door neighbor or people you know in the grocery store, whatever that, you know, a variety of different industries and backgrounds. Maybe retired, maybe a student, whoever. I would love to hear your results because I was surprised. Like, I've been talking about this for 13 years. People who know me know what I do. But Canada has been working on this for a long time too. And is it a northern thing? Like, I live in northern Ontario. Is this a bigger discussion in the southern areas of the provinces? Is it a northern Ontario thing? Is it different in other provinces? I would love to share. Send this video to your friends and ask them, like, are you aware on a scale of 1 to 10, one being I know nothing, 10. I am like, so on top of my reconciliation game. Where are they sitting? I would love to hear your results. Feel free to comment below. How much more work do we have to do? And why are we not reaching people? I would love to hear your thoughts. I have long said I can work with I don't know. It's. I don't care that scares me. And I used to think it was because people didn't care until I realized, no, it's a whole bunch of I don't know. I just didn't realize it was still so much I don't know. So could you do me a favor? Could you do a little, you know, impromptu, little informal survey? Ask your friends, are they aware of Canadian reconciliation attempts or why? I would love to know. Please comment below because I confused until tomorrow's why video. Take care. I love you. Bye bye.
