A short YouTube video by Sandi L. Boucher (Red Thunderbolt, Loon clan, Seine River First Nation) urging Indigenous and marginalized people to speak their truths and to stop waiting for existing "safe spaces"—instead to create them. The speaker references a May 26 blog post titled "Calling All Indigenous and Marginalized," reflects on how silence is often misread as acceptance, and invites listeners to engage in Canadian reconciliation through relationships and amplified Indigenous worldviews.
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Foreign. Hello, everybody, it's Sandy Boucher here once again with today's why Video. I am 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 sharing these videos with you to help you understand why Canadian reconciliation is so important and sharing the Indigenous lens on that. So that's something as a non Indigenous person, you may not have had access to before. And as an Indigenous person, well, it's just nice to hear that someone else agrees with you. So today's post was a call out. I'm talking about the May 26 blog post, and it was called Calling All Indigenous and Marginalized. I saw a quote on social media and the quote was, when you have something to say, silence is a lie. And before I say anything else, it was a. I'm looking at the information here. It was a Jordan Peterson quote. Now, if it's the same Jordan Peterson I think it is, that guy's more than a little problematic. This is not an endorsement of his work. Absolutely. At all. The quote was amazing, which goes to show that even idiots or problematic people can fluke out a good quote every now and then. This is so true. And it just made me think of so many Indigenous people in a room, probably either the only Indigenous person or one of very few who have an issue with what's being shared or said and don't feel confident enough or safe enough or both to share their truth. And that's a lie because their silence is being perceived as acceptance and it isn't. And that's another part of the decolonizing unpacking process, getting to a point where we're okay saying, excuse me, that's an issue. From my lens, from my Indigenous lens, the wording on that poster, what you do just said, how you just characterized Indigenous people is problematic. So in this blog post, I am calling, not calling out, as in criticizing, but calling all Indigenous marginalized people to speak up and share their truth. And further, I. I'm inviting them or suggesting that they stop looking for spaces where they can speak their truth and they start creating them. Because I don't think there's enough places out there yet. And we need, like, I take great joy in the fact that I have created a safe space for my truth, whether it's here in my office, in my home, on my social media channels, or even here on YouTube, that this is a place where Indigenous pride can thrive. An Indigenous worldview matters and can be shared. And I work with so many amazing non indigenous people that want to hear our truth. So. But I remember what it was like when I didn't and I felt like nobody wanted to hear the indigenous truth. And maybe for the indigenous people watching this, maybe that's still your truth. Maybe you're still hanging around with people that are telling you, don't say that and don't do that. And that's going to be problematic. Find better soil, because that's you trying to grow in that soil dosed in gasoline that I referred to in an earlier video this week. Get to that place. Create a safe space for your voice because you are here on purpose and your voice is needed. So that's what this was about. This was, let's hear those beautiful Anishinaabe voices. All the indigenous voices from every nation. We need to share our truth because if we don't, silence is acceptance. And that's a lie. So there you have it. We just wrapped up our first week of why Videos. I've really enjoyed these. I hope you do too. Please make sure to subscribe to my channel. Get your friends to subscribe to my channel if they're at all interested in learning about reconciliation, because these are little bite sized pieces five minutes out of your day. It is a journey. No one seminar, no one blog post is going to give it all. But a relationship with an indigenous person like me might just help a lot. I know it would. I hope you have a super duper double delicious weekend and I can't wait to see you on Monday with the next why Video. As always, the full blog post is below along with information on how to get your hands on all my blog posts. Forget to subscribe? Talk to you on Monday. I love you. Bye bye.
