WHY Getting Nish Naked? (WHY it's SO important for Indigenous people to unpack!)

Foreign. Hello, everybody. 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 World why video? So we're looking at the May 24 blog entry, and it was called Getting Niche Naked. And yes, I should probably explain that, although anyone in my inner circle or anyone who's met me or knows me or been to one of my seminars probably wouldn't even be surprised I used that phrase. So, first off, Nish. What's Nish? Well, it's short form for Nishnaabe, which is Ojibwe in Ojibwe. So I am Anishinaabe. We refer to Nish as our fellow Anishinaabe people, especially our friends. It's a very friendly short form. So this blog post was all about celebrating the end result after the packing, unpacking and decolonizing that I talked about in the first why video. So basically I was celebrating that the shame is gone. That shame that so many of us Anishinaabe or Indigenous people were taught about being Indigenous. Like, remember, a lot of people suffer with shame and guilt, but that was taught to us for generations in the residential school. So it's not just what happens to an average, normal human, but ingrained in us. And how freeing it is to be past that, how freeing it is to have pride in your culture and your teachings rather than that shame that it's like standing naked as an Indigenous person in front of people and being proud. No more armor. No more having to hide. No more covering up. It was a very appreciative blog post of, wow, this is how far I've come. And I'm sure liking the view from where I am. So if you're wondering why it is so important for Indigenous people to decolonize, to unpack what we've been taught, this is why. Because there are so many things wrong with. With trying to take someone's culture. Imagine how much your culture matters to you, whatever that is, whether it involves your religion, your language, your country of origin, whatever it is. And imagine having to deny that, being told that that's horrible and that's embarrassing and that you shouldn't be proud of who you are. In fact, you should focus on becoming someone else. That's the Indigenous experience in Canada. And it is so freeing not to worry about that judgment anymore. It's not that that judgment isn't out there, because it still very much is. And if you're running into it. If you're indigenous watching this and you're running into that judgment, I hear you and I see you. Their value or their vision problem is not your value problem. If they can't see how much you're worth, they should get to the eye doctor. You are amazing. And what's that quote? When a flower doesn't bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower. There's nothing wrong with indigenous people. We don't need to be fixed. We've just been trying to grow in soil doused in gasoline for far too long. So this was my celebration blog post and I hope you saw it is that if you're non indigenous, I hope you saw the joy in this poise post, saw the confidence, saw the determination and took none of that as a threat. Because if we're ever going to reconcile, we both need to be able to come to the table strong. And this is just indigenous strong by getting Niche naked until tomorrow's why video again. The full blog post is below. Feel free to comment. I would love to hear what you thought of what I just shared and there's some information on how to get your hands on even more blog posts. Until tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye bye.