Blog Archive

Wednesday, 15 July 2026

My advice given to indigenous women regarding therapies

(00:01.706) Hello, here, July 15th. This is a Wednesday and our community is in mourning. Our head chief lost his mother and she's like about four years older than myself. But I'm just relating what I've been going through this week. So also, I think yesterday they buried the 12 year old child who committed suicide in another community. Okay, so what am I talking about today? Well, it's more of advice or just the reality of when I talk to Indigenous women and white women, usually it's Indigenous women who, you know, I've been around because I'm Indigenous. is when I suggest therapy I say shop around and for good reason. So I'm going to be, I've taken some notes really abstract wise regarding how some women give advice to other women. and it's, this is from, in my opinion okay, she puts it on TikTok so I'm... I'm not following her. I'm just using her example to talk about my life. her name is Leslie Taverner. So again, she says, women are being told to refrain from expressing what they're looking for in relationships for fear that man will use them to act the part. Example, pretend that he also seeking committed relationship or marriage to get sex and deceive them. Example, get sex and then ghost her. In other words, instead of alchemizing the underlying fear of being used, the women are being told to play games. Women are being told not to discuss their relationship hurts, instead claim that all men treat them like queens. (02:21.442) This is deceptive and a way to avoid vulnerable communication where you not only share how you were hurt, but you also share how you contributed to those toxic experiences and how you have healed and are healing from these experiences. She calls this the dark feminine energy is not afraid to be vulnerable or authentic. It is shielding herself from potential pain. instead, she's the alchemist. any pain that arises, alchemizes any pain that arises into power. This is what makes her irresistible. Now, I've gone through a few of her TikToks and they're very short. They're very short TikToks and (03:12.494) Again, I'm going to, like there's I think four of them, but what really intrigued me was just how sad and lonely women are. And again, she says, many women are depressed because they're missing their dark, masculine man despite all the challenges that they had in their relationships. Like I said, I haven't been in a relationship, but all my childhood friends and women my age have experienced this with what she calls, this lady calls dark, masculine man. And so... (04:00.75) What's up? Like she says, your depression is a gift. It's full of the dark feminine in you. Utilize your depression to let go of the expectations of disappointment in the man you must love. Most love, not must love, most love, as well as disappointment with the money. It's perfect to do internet work. Anyway, that's what she says. But I'm critiquing her work too, but There are some valuable insights that she does have that I do think are important. So I'm going to start off with part one and work its way to reasons why women feel that they're attracted to a certain man. Now, in most cases, when I've talked to Indigenous older women and I talk to them about how I'm sexually attracted to an individual or men that I've been around because for them, they have their children and their grandchildren. They see me as like this woman who hasn't been in a relationship, almost like I'm neutered. So it's very triggering for them when I start talking about healthy human sexuality. my friend who I spoke to yesterday, I was telling her, and again, in this whole... podcast, I'm going to be talking about three different types of men. And I don't want to give their names out. But again, too, this is just the dynamics of what's been happening in the past three years with me. And like historical wise, too, because I do think a lot of times when therapists or self-help gurus come around, they're not really... (05:57.902) They're sort of abstract in how they want to give advice and help to other women based on little parts of their life. In my podcast, I'm trying to talk about things that have triggered me from a vulnerable point and how even what this lady is talking about when I talk to my friends, my childhood friends, or even like just people, like women. I think out of all the women I do talk to, there was only one that was still married in a relationship. All the others, they just separated or just chose to live and raise their children by themselves. And of course, too, my white friend is like that. She's divorced and her son is married. And so she's living like independently. And we were talking and I was telling her about my what I've known her before the pandemic. And she's always using the word authentic. Now, this lady that I'm going to be quoting on from from the podcast, she uses those words to. Now, why am I doing this? Because I want to sort of caution you about when you're seeking therapies and, you know, like really shop around. What one woman may say may not even be applicable to you. And again, to most of the women, the Indigenous women that I do talk to, don't want to go to therapy. It's just... It's just the reality. Now, I'm sorry for that going off like that. I don't know how I'm going to stop it because that's a bit annoying, isn't it? Let's see if I can do this here. I am going to shut it off. Sorry about that. It's just things that I need to do. (08:09.664) Okay, that should work. Okay, we'll start this. I'm going to do the first one and then I'll break into it. I mean, it sounds I'm horrible in sort of not giving you an outline and all that, but here goes. Looking at meeting new men and dating them. And so she asked me, how do I go about vetting these men beyond just, you know. good looks and sexual chemistry. So that's what I'm going to talk about on the reel today. And I want you to start to pay attention to your body, start to pay attention to how you feel when you interact with men. And that will let you know, A, if you're attracted to them in the first place, and B, how are you attracted to them? because there's different ways in which the feminine is attracted to the masculine or in which the feminine chooses the masculine. So my dark masculine man and his wife, Carla and Kenny Stevens, they have written a whole book on this. It's called The Nine Expressions of Love. That's the title of the book. And in that book, they talk about the feminine choice paradigm, which I'll go into a little bit in this reel. And they also talk about the masculine desire paradigm, which I won't go into today. So in the feminine choice paradigm, the feminine is attracted to the masculine for different reasons, depending on which masculine archetype is showing up in that man relative to her. So if you are choosing a man because of intense sexual chemistry, that man would be a dark masculine man to you. or another term for that is he would be your womb choice, meaning that you have a primal sexual attraction to him. So your root chakra and your sacral chakra are very attracted to this man. You very much want to have sex with this man and you know it right away. So when you feel that and you start to communicate with him, you can let him know, you know, this is the reason why I feel drawn to you. feel. (10:29.41) very sexually activated by you and I want to experience a sexual connection with you, okay? That's honest and that's vulnerable and I recommend that you do say that to him. Don't play games. Let him know why you feel drawn to him. So this morning I was... So her definition of the dark, masculine man is that like you're horny. And like I always say to my friends, you're, if you feel attracted to a man, let him know. And the reality of it is like, and like I know I'm single. I like, and I've told you like how long I haven't been sexually active. So this approach to men and how I feel with them, I've been practicing for, for decades. Whereas, women are so, have been so busy raising their children and grandchildren. And also like suppressing that horniness or that sexual attraction. There are some things though that I disagree with her when she says like, you know, you'll feel it right away. This last encounter that I had with a fellow, I met him three years ago. And there was an attraction, but it wasn't, it was like an energy that I remembered from like 55 years ago. So that's why I'm trying to say is like a lot of the things she's talking about, those things are like memory, like memory of your sexual activity or sexual thoughts, your holistic collective combination of your sexual experiences come into play when you're attracted or feel something for me as a woman to a man. And it's not spontaneous like she said. Like I know sometimes it feels that way. But again, too, the question of like, why do I feel this way? Again, too, it has to do with trust. Now, even though you're sexually attracted to a man and you feel horny, doesn't mean you're going to respond to him automatically and say, I want to have sex with you. When I was promiscuous, yes, it was spontaneous. (12:56.0) Yet there comes a price. So what is that price like? I think the more you start meeting men who hurt you, the more distrust you have. So three years ago when I was approached by this man, and not in a romantic way, but I know I needed to trust him. And it was just like, you know, I know he was trying to establish trust with me so that we could openly have conversation. And it was from that point that as I started ruminating or like how cow has how many stomachs and they eat and digest in one stomach and it goes to the next stomach to digest. Well, that's part of the whole process of trust for me, an analogy. It sounds sort of gross, but that's what pops up in my mind today. So it's not clear cut as she has put. and that's why I wanted to talk about this podcast because in the discourse that I've had with this man, I had talked with him on March 11th and I did tell him that I had these feelings that had surfaced over the couple of years when I've talked to him about establishing trust with him because in order for me to uncover or Percolate my sexual memories from like 55 years ago. I I had to Logically just shift and say yes I'm gonna surrender if the potential is there to have sex with this man. I'm open to it Now I gave myself permission to do that at an unconscious conscious level which takes a hell of a lot of energy even though this lady on tik-tok is talking about it as if Like it's just going to be spontaneous. No, it's not. that's why I say when you're going with the therapies, be careful. Shop around, especially because it's your life. Those are your memories. This is how you function. Your strategy is totally different than mine. And that's why I say what I'm doing in my podcast is talking about a process. It's not something where you rush into it. There's (15:23.276) the concept of self-love and self-nurturing and self-expression, creating that narrative of what makes you who you are. And a lot of times, like when I went to Las Vegas, I had said to my white friend, I said, each time I didn't let my indigenous female friends know what I was doing and that I was traveling with a white man. And I didn't even let my family know. And then the second time I did let... one of my family members know. I had talked to quite a few women in the city about what was happening with this white man. Again, too, because I had to be very open with him. And that vulnerability of being open and trusting is something that is sexual. We cannot undo it. It's part of our biology. That was like epiphany for me because in talking to him on March 11th, I did say that I was attracted to him, but there was this energy that he held that reminded me of a former lover 55 years ago. And that energy he held, I said I had to, I didn't say to him, I had to visit it, revisit it every time I spoke with him. But I did actively communicate with this white man. And he was listening. I told him that as a man, for him to hold space for me meant a lot, and that in his life, he was going to be experiencing a lot of great things. Which for me, as an older woman who, like I said, Just understanding how to trust Especially when it comes to your own story your own life and whether or not that that man is going to look at you and like say and believe what you're saying Because some men don't trust women either But I mean the reality of it is like this is your journey This is your life and this is what you need to do to move forward so all the time it was (17:47.414) It was completely open. I was completely open with him. Even during the three years that we would interact, the first, I think, year was strategic. And he says, well, I'm in a relationship. And I'd say, of course, I'm just letting you know this is how I communicate. I'm trying to give you as much information about my culture, my environment. things that I experienced around Nathan Chasing Horse. So again, even the masculine person in Nathan Chasing Horse is also part of this topic. There's also the relationship I had with a forensic psychologist for over 30 years. Again, another masculine energy. all this, like these two men, Nathan and, we'll give the other guy's name, Paul. Both Nathan and Paul, like I, like for Nathan it was like, oh he's, you a youth worker, he's got this charisma, and then there's a point of distrust. With Paul it was like, I've known him for decades and he'd always come over and spend like at least four hours just chit chatting with me and sometimes his partner would call and say like, honey, we're having supper, are you coming home? There was no sexual attraction in terms of, well, let me put it this way. Yes, as a woman, there'll always be sexual attraction, but it's the degree or what this woman talks about, the dark masculine man. That is like, for me, like when you're horny and you're in a bar and you make contact and you hook up. Like that's how it sounds to me. So excuse me, that's my opinion. And that's the reason why I'm critiquing this TikTok so I can explain my own sexual story and why I think it's important to shop around for a therapist. And especially as women like to really question your memory and question the safety. So yesterday when I was talking to my white friend, I was saying to her, yeah, I just, you know, I am... (20:10.51) I've never told anybody that I went to Las Vegas. And I said, even to this day, the two of the Indigenous women that I had, like we talked on a daily basis. And then when I came home, I just stopped. My white friend says, Marina, if you did that to me, I would call you up and say, what did I do? And I said to her exactly, I said, if my friendship meant anything to anybody, they would call me up and say, what did I do wrong? One of the ladies came up during the stampede breakfast, brought me my stampede breakfast and says, I'll call you. Again, she hasn't called. The other lady waved at me and I waved back at her, but she hasn't called. So again, I said to my white friend, I'm keeping boundaries because these two women still don't know that I traveled. Las Vegas with a white man and I went to Las Vegas in March and April so both times these women in my community I didn't tell and there were people in the city of Calgary that I did tell like some like other women but it was important for me to keep this confidentiality within my you know like within my First Nations community like I'm not Inuit or Métis so I don't know what it's like to be from those communities, but I do know what it's like to be a woman. So as I'm talking to my right friend yesterday, she says, but Marina, that's like a small town. Word gets around all the time. And she says, I've grown up in a small town. She says, I was always surprised when people would tell me something about myself, which she says, again, I didn't know anybody knew, but a small town, says, word gets around. So in other words, she's trying to tell me, Marina, even though you've kept it secret that you went to Las Vegas once, the white guy, we flew together. The second time I just met him down there. But I told her, said, no, I didn't tell anybody. Said, especially these two women. And my white friend says, Marina, they know. And I said to her, well, even if they did know from, I don't know what source. (22:35.022) Because I didn't tell them and the only family member that I did tell lives in Edmonton. Like for whatever reason they do know, I said to her, well, it's the whole premise like, but I don't know won't hurt me. See, and my keeping my boundaries and not talking to them is like, you know, making sure that the news they have or the gossip they have about me is not going to hurt me. Now that's, that's. the whole thing about lateral violence and misogyny. Even though we tend to think as Indigenous women we're not practicing these things, we do. Like for example, when I'm talking to my cousin about this white man and I made a comment that I'd recently text him and each time I tell her that I've had communications with him, there's always this comeback about like, oh well Marina, like... you're horny for him. Like she says, well Marina, maybe he needs to divorce his partner. And I said to her, don't say that. I said, don't you know you're not supposed to think bad about other people? Like how much more, how much more? Like as a woman thinking bad about another woman who she doesn't even know. As if like, as if that's what I'm thinking or what I'm desiring. And again, I was saying to my white friend, you know, this whole point is this is my life. It's nobody's business. But but no matter what I try to do, the boundaries I put in place, people are still going to be creative and still going to. you know, imagine either the best case scenario or the worst case scenario when it comes to me and my relationship with men. Because my goodness, I'm an oddity. I haven't had partner children. when I say partner, that means I have never lived common law. Okay, so a lot of things that people and women have chose to live, like this lady who's doing her this TikTok. (24:54.477) and how that she's got clients. And again, too, like I could say, oh, you know, call me up and I'll give you some advice. You pay me $300 an hour. You know, like people are hungry for money and they'll, you know, whatever academic life they've had and whatever they can do to help. To me, you know, I like, I'm grateful. I'm grateful they're there. But, I'm. I'm going to play the second one. Now, again, she's talking about dark, masculine men. And for each one of those, I'm going to critique what she means as it pertains to how I've dealt with these things. (25:44.014) So one of my ex-boyfriends who I dated for a little over two years and we're still friends to this day. We talk every single day. That reminds me about Paul. And what drew me to him? It wasn't sexual chemistry. It was... I really liked how responsible... That's Paul. And grounded and stable and steady and hardworking he was. He was a forensic psychologist. was financially responsible. And he wasn't my boyfriend. And I met him at work as well. I like the fact that everybody at work respected him. You he's very well respected. Yes, he was well respected. Like he just, I could just see it. I could feel it. Like this man has strong leadership qualities. And if I were to date him. I knew that I would be able to have a steady, stable relationship with him that could possibly lead to marriage. we did almost. See, and for me, it wasn't dating. It was just having him over, having a conversation, learning things about the psychology of human behavior. We had some really deep discussions, and I felt safe. He knew all about my sexual life. I held nothing back. And again, to... I didn't ask him about his life. This was a time for me just to release my own narrative, like how I'm doing in this podcast. Now, if you choose to date and find such a masculine man, this is what she's talking about, and this is her experience in, we'll call it her healing journey. (27:48.762) Exactly. I had an issue with that, but in terms of his leadership qualities, he was solid and I was very drawn to him for that reason. And I told him that I did. know about the feminine choice paradigm at the time, so I couldn't explain to him in those exact words. But, you know, I did express to him that, you know, I felt like... I liked his stability, I liked his steadiness. I just felt like we could have something really solid together. also... See, I didn't... Like I said, like what she said, that sexual attraction wasn't there. For Paul, though, I believe he had some sexual attraction to me just because of the way he behaved around me. And I think at an unconscious level, I just didn't want to deal with it. I didn't want to... You know, say to him, is your face three inches away from my face when you're trying to look at my phone? Or why do you spend so many hours like this just coming over to talk to me? And making sure, now understand this, he loved it when I didn't have company. He resented if I had somebody here with me, if he stopped by. So that was his issue, not mine. Okay, but again. This lady here is talking about a whole different scenario because this has to do with relationships and marriage and how she treated her children. I don't have children. You know, family members, they immediately loved him. He presented himself well. Like they all wanted me to marry him. My family knew who Paul is. He had king energy through and through. (29:36.98) another type of attraction that you may feel. We hear about this a lot from influencers like Sheera Sevin and others who really encourage women to choose a man primarily because of his ability to financially provide for her above all else. I haven't had that. attractive. That's very attractive. And it doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to be your husband. It could mean that. That's very young. Yes, probably. The way that I first got into sex work. I've never been a sex worker. I used to do, I used to be a vendor, I used to sell like natural foods. I was promiscuous when I was younger. this man, kept approaching me and he would always buy a whole bunch of stuff. I mean, when you go into bars, men do that just automatically. Like really, I didn't even care sometimes when I in sexual, when I was younger. We're talking like 50 years ago. And then of course he called me that same evening. He expressed an interest in taking me out on a date. And I wasn't really attracted to him. I didn't feel like going on a date with him. And so I just told him the truth. I said, okay, I'll go on a date with you, but I'm gonna need you to give me some money. And he agreed to do it. He said, okay. Now, when I met men in bars, I didn't say I'll. you know, if they wanted me to go home with them, didn't say it'll cost money. I didn't. just, you know, I thought, well, he wants something, I want something. We're going to share each other's bodies, enjoy each other. And then at the end of the night or however long we were together, that's it. Walk away, never see each other again. So again, we're talking from different life experiences. And I think the majority of Indigenous women that I have talked with (31:57.038) Basically, it's that. One of my relatives had an affair with a married man for 17 years because he bought her things. He bought her things and hardworking, getting her degree, paying mortgage. It was like somebody to help her, not directly raise her children, but just in terms of monetary. I know he was handsome, good looking. Dakota man as well. My goodness, that was a plus. But the reality of it is like it came with like the finance that he was married and never left his wife for her. I'll pay you. So we went on the date. He took me out to dinner and that night there was a very heavy snowstorm so I wasn't able to drive home. He recommended that. stay at his place, I spent the night and then one thing led to another and he paid me a lot of money the next morning and so that was very like pleasing to me. I was like, wow, wow, I like this. Like, this is a turn on to me. I like this. So with him, I wasn't physically attracted to him, but I really liked the fact that he was willing to spend money on me. That felt good to me. So that's see When I was younger, I lived in a university town and there were a lot of young Indigenous women who met, you know, professional Indigenous men who, you know, took them out. Like this is during conferences. Okay. Now, I just want to let you know the National Congress of American Indians have these conferences. And in the 70s, it was in Salt Lake City. And believe me, there were a hell of a lot of educated professional Indigenous men who paid money. to have these young Indigenous women spend a night with them. And, you know, and of course these young women were so impressed with these educated Indigenous men, Native Americans, of course. But for me, it just, I just thought they were being used because again, I'd already had this history, this memory of like, again, you know, we're talking about trust and... (34:22.401) balance. for me, listening to women, there was one young lady who had an internship in Washington DC and her Jewish lover, again when I say lover, I'm not talking about intercourse, she performed fallacia on him and even though they were states away, he would spend 10 hours just talking on the phone, like having a sex on the phone. And she just thought, I'm still a virgin, so it's okay, I can get married in the Mormon temple. I mean, all these twisted narratives being Mormon and, you know, like being sexually free for both men and women, the stories can go on and on. But at the same time, too, when it comes to men paying your way, on March 11th, when this white man came into Calvary, came into my home, we visited the next day, picked me up, went to the airport, flew to Las Vegas, Ubered it to the hotel, paid for my lunch and breakfast and anything I wanted, and we Ubered around, and it was nice. But see, mean, Paul would come and he'd... buy me a few grocery stuffs and drop it off. And it felt nice like that men were paying for something. But there was no, how would I say it? If men do that for women, and they have their partners and they do that on a daily basis, and that's part of the relationship. For me as a single Indigenous woman, I just thought, well, that's pretty nice of... individual and I need to pay them back somehow. So again, trying to find balance in things and again, even when people are doing nice things for me, it's not like, gee, I hope and I wish these Paul and this white man would divorce their partners. No, no. Yet when I talk to my Indigenous friends about any man that I've talked with, have done (36:45.655) things with in terms of just meeting with them. There's always that underlying, you know, issue of like, well, Marina, you want, you want him. I'm going, no, I'm happy just being single and just being able to talk to another human being that is a male. manifestation choice. Another type of attraction is... So again that's the manifestation because of the money. So again here's another part that I hope she's talking about a choice. Again this is a spiritual person that she's talking about in terms of like let's see here First we spoke about the support, then we talked about the manifestation, now we're talking about the crown, which is... his mind. I love his spiritual wisdom. And you can see that when you listen to our podcast episodes, you can see that I really love to pick his brain. I love to ask him questions. I love his answers. we now these three men, okay. Paul, the white guy and Nathan chasing horse. There was like they all had this, you know, like I, it was interesting to talk to them. I love their out Like with Nathan, was like him being a youth worker and using ceremony to heal. Because a lot of times, most of the talk that I had been raised in was to be wary of men like Nathan because they had an agenda. I didn't perceive him as that at the beginning. So of course, I was open to question him. (38:50.19) and ask him about ceremony and even like the fact that he was sharing the traditional songs because he was open to sharing instead of, you know, saying, oh, pay me money to, for me to teach you these knowledgeable things. Okay, so again, even to with the white guy, you know, just his credentials in what he does for living, I can't even comprehend. the people he's been around, because that's not my circle of people. I'm always interested in how men, how they function around other men. And again, like the respect men show each other. So that's part of the conversation that really intrigues me when it comes to what this lady calls the crown choice, because it's like looking into the male perspective. like a voyeur. I mean, it's attractive to look, but again, too, you know, there's this whole trust issue. She doesn't talk about that though. Both of those connections occurring. And so if you're attracted to a man, you want to check in with yourself and determine that why am I attracted to this man? What is it about him that's attracted me to him? Where am I feeling this? Am I feeling this in my groin? in my root chakra? Am I feeling it in my heart chakra? If you are feeling in your heart, then he's probably a support choice. Am I feeling it in my third eye or crown? Am I blown away by his wisdom? Then he's a crown choice. Am I just turned on by the fact that he's willing to spend money on me? Is that what it is? And you can let him know what it is and what it isn't. Now this particular woman, she's on the dating app, so... know with dating apps it's a little bit more difficult to kind of like years ago there was another fellow named Billy he was a Kiowa Indian from Oklahoma and I was able to talk to him and say I feel like I'm in love with you I mean we're standing in the door of the lobby of the hotel and I'm because I'm dropping him off not that not trying to go into his bedroom or anything and I just said you know I I I've (41:16.856) feel like I'm in love with you. I said, I feel this sexual energy, but I know it's not real. Like when she's talking about, feel it. Is it your crown, your heart, your groin, like, you know, all that. Like it's one thing to statistically say, okay, sense, know your body. But when you're in the moment of like, my goodness, I'm so scared. I've got to talk to this man about how I feel. You know, I... I practice doing these things because I was so hurt by women who manipulated trying to get their way in friendship with me. Like I had a roommate who was Polynesian and just didn't have money for rent, but she sure as hell created a narrative about a Polynesian football player who she claimed was attracted to me. And as long as I kept her as a roommate, she would feed into that fantasy. I had to go and talk to him directly to say this woman has been living with me and telling me stories about you and this is what she's saying that you're attracted to me and he says no I'm not. So even though it hurts you to openly talk to a man you have to and like with Billy like the football player his name was Robert. And even though like Billy were standing there and I said no, you know, I feel this because I did feel that way with Robert But I did talk to him and I didn't know sometimes I would use that as Like a what do call a blockage like you're blocking your chakras you're blocking your energy I used Robert to block any sexual urges that I had for any other man I just focus on him so I felt safe that, you know, like, yeah, my roommate filled the fantasy or the void that, you know, that I, again, too, because I wasn't dealing with memory, sexual memory of previous lovers that I had. I was just, you know, just able to just try and keep the status quo. And no matter what my roommate, Lisa, was trying to feed me, I would just pretend. (43:40.751) I know when I talk about pretendings in Native Americans like I like hello It originates it originates someplace But like it takes courage to step out of that comfort zone Because because you're being manipulated by other women for purpose not sexual monetarily like for because because she I don't know why she couldn't get a job. I guess it's like a man when you're You live with a man and he's living off of you. You don't know why they can't get a job. But again, you have to have the courage to, you know, step forward and say, look, I talked to the guy. He's not interested in me. I don't know why you're trying to create this narrative because, you know, we're as roommates, we're all supporting her. It's not like I was a lesbian or attracted to her. It was the allure of the impossible that this man, Robert actually did feel something for me because I mean he asked me to dance and little limerence things that I held onto because I didn't think it was hurting me. And that's the point that I'm trying to make on my podcast. A lot of times we think it's innocent but in the psychological terms, in terms of our own balance, our own healthy human sexuality, we really have to be critical of our own way and why we take on these notions. of love and intimacy. And so even with Billy, his whole genre was unhealthy female Native American, both male and female, have mental health. And so even that being associated with him, I was able to work with other women my age and older who mentally meant in terms of mental wellness had had this limerence, this deep Like it's one thing to be a teenager and every human being goes through infatuation. But there is a tipping point in the balance where the limerence, the infatuation goes into a deeper psychological, we'll say crutch or trauma or something where, you know, it takes professional help to sort of dig your way out of the grave that you dug for yourself. And unless you have support or you understand, you know, your narrative and your story. (46:06.294) and you have a safe place to talk to another human being about how you feel. Like when I say the word horny, that's not a swear word. But for some women, it's really difficult to even say the word penis or clitoris or fuck or rape or trauma. it's, you know, it's amazing or even like ejaculation. I mean, I'm trying to be as civil as I can, but that's... the conversations that I try to have with my Indigenous female friends and it's very difficult. So that's why with my white friend who says, well Marina, they have to know that you went to Las Vegas with a white man. And I said, I am putting boundaries down. you know, what I don't know won't hurt me. And for me, when I live in a community of lateral violence, I do need to keep those boundaries in place so that I don't get hurt. And even like with Billy, my doing all this work, this mental health work, because I was sitting on the board for the Native Women's Emergency Shelter, and even the reality of the mental health of the women who actually were working to get one established, was just at the tip of the iceberg for them because I don't realize, I don't believe that they understood their own mental health journey towards healthy human sexuality. But because I'd been so far apart, like by the time I was the board of directors for the women's shelter, I'd already been not sexually active like what, 20 years. So a lot of the experience I have with feelings to men that I meet or any kind of this, what this lady calls dark, dark masculine man, I've had to trudge my way throughout my life. either, you know, talking, saying my narrative. So even this podcast, this isn't something new. Like, imagine, like, I'm talking to you as if you're an Indigenous woman that I've just met and I'm still, this is who I am. And sometimes it's really difficult for Indigenous women to really listen and even communicate and say, yes, I've gone through this. Because there's a lot of work that needs to be done. (48:32.428) Now why I mention my white friend is because she says, I really hope that before I die that, you know, young girls will, will, you know, get it realized like we, you know, we were responsible to support each other, like in terms of matriarchy. Again, too, that's that in itself is sort of a fallacy because I truly believe historically since the beginning of time. in matriarchal society, you're born into it. Like your mother, your grandmothers, your aunties and all that. Even the men educate you by the time you're five years old that you're in a matriarchal system. Now, hopefully because they robbed that and suppressed it and stole it from us, like when we say land back, you know, we're talking about matriarchy, we're talking about the earth. So a lot of things, it's so abstract and the concept is so foreign to people who have had generations of not living off the land or having community from the time you're born until the time you die, living in indigenous community. Like I mentioned, this tomorrow we're burying a matriarch. She grew up in Siksika, married here in Sutena. Her whole life has been around indigenous people living in... off the land with people that are indigenous, like profound. Like I want people in my audience to understand that. When you make a choice, like you make a choice to get married or have children, you make a choice where to live. If you're an indigenous woman, do you live away from your indigenous community? And if you do, is it because you've been sexually assaulted or been traumatized or you're just... hate being Indigenous or you're ashamed to be Indigenous. For whatever reason, the consequences too are like if you have children, at what point do your children make peace with the decisions you've made to bastardize your own culture? And I'm saying that very bluntly because there are men like Nathan Chasinghorse who've done that and there are women who are misogynistic. (50:49.876) and Machiavellian who are crabs in a pail, the analogy of pulling each other down so you can get to the top. Like that as women, I just don't think it's indigenous. Like I said, my white friend says, it's important that young women start supporting each other. And so that's why, like even for me, when I look at the Sutin of Women who went down to support one of their sisters who was testifying. for one of the victims, a young girl who first came to Sioux Tuna when she was seven years old. And she's 25 now. So these women that went down and the sponsorship with the chief and council helping them is a profound validation of matriarchy. I mean, I have my own issues when it comes to financial stability and just fairness. That's my own pettiness. But the reality of it is, like, I try to explain what support and mental health is, especially when it comes to young women, that it's important that they help. And if you have some mental problem, I don't want to say problem, if you have a notion and not able to question yourself. And she's now dating or beginning to date men. Hold on. Now, this, like I said, part four is the crown. So I wouldn't go into dating apps. I'm like her. (52:43.214) Exactly. Most women I know don't. Not all. Yeah, see, hot passionate sex, that's when I was younger. Most women don't want to be. if you're looking for exclusivity, if you could give a fuck about exclusivity and you're happy to be in a polyamorous relationship, or if you're a swinger, just say what it is. Say what it is that you're into, what you're looking for, and there's nothing wrong with that. I think that's beautiful and that's healthy and that's how I go about it. And then another choice is... See, that's the reality I've tried to talk about in the past three years. For 30 years, Paul and I were... Like he'd come and we'd visit. Even like I knew Paul before I met Nathan Chasinghorse. So even having discussions about Nathan Chasinghorse with Paul, like it was important. It was important to have that. But I also went to therapy too. And my therapist was a woman. So all these things and deconstructing how women were treating me. See, notion is that it wasn't like I met Nathan Chasing Horse 20 years ago. The reality of my doing my blog and trying to get a message to my niece was because there were a lot of women who were laterally violent towards me as if I was a pedophile myself. And even to this day, I sense it with people, young women in my community towards me, as well as young men. So a lot of my podcasts that I do talk about, I'm talking about that specifically because like for 20 years, like to deconstruct why women would treat me the way they did when it came to this Nathan chasing horse who in this woman, this TikTok is calling the crown or the spiritual person, masculine man. And a lot of masculine men or men who aren't even masculine in the sense of the crown, (55:01.816) pretend to be. So like I say, these are analogies and labels that this woman has put on the dark masculine man, as well as a lot of people who've created books and trying to sell their self-help approach. You really have to shop around. Like I said, my talking to this white man about how I... Originally had to establish trust with him by being open and the only way I could be open was to validate Yes, I could have sex with this man, but you can understand the mental transformation from having a Relationship with Paul to to having a relationship with this white man and and in the background there's 20 years before there's this Nathan chasing horse or there's this Billy or there's this Robert like, like, or, or, and of course the impetus or the creation story is Mike, Mike, who, who, I have constant memory of every day in my life because again, this dark masculine energy that I experienced when I was 18, it, it's something that for me, is the experience or the creativity of my relationship with all men. And in order to have balance and open dialogue with men, I had to visit that relationship. In the past three years, my memory of Mike, I had to pull it out of the cobwebs of my mind. And I had to bring it with every man that I had talked with. Like even the fact that when I was The following year I was brutally sexually assaulted. I had to bring all those memories in to the present because you're dealing with what those rapists were men and and just because they're violent Doesn't mean that all men are violent mind you the most of the most dangerous person a woman will be ever be around in their life is their partner so (57:22.593) This important need to balance and trust has to come with fidelity. I think they say men will kill their partner if she's messing around, cheating. I think too, I've grown up around it my whole life, seeing men beat up their partners. Like I said, anybody could ask me, I know. Like it's terrible. It's terrible. You know, and then as women we die and you know, they have your children and grandchildren and yet the origin, like the origin story, the creation story, for most indigenous women it had to do with infidelity and violence, family violence. And the fact that you had children and you've got to live protecting your children because that's a choice you made. For me, I chose not to have children and I chose not to be in any form of relationship. Mind you, the 10 months before my uncle and a year before my dad passed away, I did make a conscious choice to, but I did say that I was gonna be open if there was a man to come into my life that I wouldn't have hate or disgust or fear in. establishing a relationship. Mind you, that narrative of like a man coming up and saying, oh, you're the most beautiful woman in the world. like, you know, every narrative I've gone through, it's, when you're younger, you know, your prime meat, you know, like, oh my good, you're like the, what do they call Adam and Eve, you're the apple on that tree. You know, that man is willing to take that first bite, but I'm going, no, no, no, cannot do that. (59:25.565) I'm choice, which is like when the man is like a guru, he's super intelligent in a particular fashion and sex. Some women really want money. Some women want a spiritual guru type of guy. You know, so like you have to figure out, like what type of man do I most desire to be with at this time in my life, you know, and, and express that in your dating profile. If, if you're looking for exclusivity, if you could give a fuck about exclusivity and you're happy to be in a polyamorous relationship, or if you're a swinger, like just say what it is, say what it is that you're into, what you're looking for. And there's nothing wrong with that. I think that's beautiful. And that's, that's, that's healthy. And that's, that's, that's how I go about it. And then another choice is the crown choice, which is like when the man is like a guru. He's super intelligent in a particular era. And we'll talk about it. I came across a real recently. and I just don't even understand this. This is a she calls herself a dark feminine coach. And I just don't understand what she's saying because she's recommended to women that you don't tell him what you're looking for in a man or what it is that you're seeking or desiring. Because if you tell him that he'll play that part he'll act that part in order to deceive you and he'll screw you over or you know He'll get you to sleep with him and then he'll ghost you or whatever like that's very fair-based I don't I don't relate with men from a fair-based perspective that oh he's gonna be toxic or he's gonna lie to me or he's gonna deceive me or he's gonna screw me over so I can't be honest with him I have to withhold information I have to not let him know what I'm looking for or not let him know why I'm attracted to him or I have to deceive and tell him that, you know, every man I've ever been with sees me as a queen or treated me as a queen. And the only reason we're not together is because our values differ. Like, I'm not into playing games with men. Fuck that. I'm not into playing games. I'm into being authentic. I'm into being vulnerable. I'm into speaking my truth. I'm into expressing what it is that I actually feel and what it is that I actually desire. And if he's in agreement with that, then cool. You know, we can have a good time. (01:01:38.817) If he's not, then that's fine. But like this whole inauthenticity and fearing that he's gonna deceive you and screw you over and be a narcissist and all this kind of like, fuck that. Like I don't entertain that shit. That shit is so fucking fear based and gross. And I don't recommend that to my clients at all. You don't wanna be in a fear based state when relating to men. You wanna be open and receptive and honest and vulnerable and authentic. That's the best way to go in my opinion. So I hope that... So like that, when I met Nathan Chasing Horse, I wasn't fear-based. But it was amazing that women tended to feel like this is their choice, like to be part of the cult, drink the Kool-Aid, actually see and witness his interaction with girls and boys. Like it's really sickening that there were men who still follow him to this day, who are protected by the FBI or whoever, that it's all fear-based and to have control over the most vulnerable, especially when it comes to sexual energy. Like I said earlier, even to the point where this Nathan didn't care who he had sex with, men, women, but mostly his propensity was for children, both boys and girls as young as seven and eight years old. Like for me to openly talk to a woman and say to her, yes my niece who I took care of for seven years, talking to her about what Nathan did to her, like in terms of ceremony how he'd hit her on the head with a rattle. like to have them fear, like in a dark room, like the boogeyman, like they'd get scared. And the lady said, that's what he did to my daughter. And that's what he did to the seven-year-old girl whose mother. (01:03:43.073) I mean, when they did the impact statement, you can see it on YouTube. She says, I tried to kill myself three times. This is a woman who's been in this state of flux for 20 years, the state of fear based. And that's why I say when it comes to limerence. It's important to find a therapist that can help you navigate through this. Because it looks and you rationalize like it's infatuation when really it isn't. You've given this limerence power, this fear power. You've given this limerence a place of safety because as long as you're fantasizing and have this delusion, you don't really have to feel love. You don't really have to talk to a man about how you love him. You don't have to say, it's something that I felt. And for me, I've been practicing. And this last time in my practice, it was revolutionary in the sense that I was open to be sexually active with this man. And for me, one of my friends says, well Marina, you're looking from a small community. They have to know. And I said, well, what I don't know doesn't hurt me. So in my podcast, like what I'm saying to you is, you know, what I disclose to you is a way of you trying to understand your own sexuality, your own propensity to heal yourself. But it takes a hell of a lot of courage. I've met so many women my age, 10 years younger, like even just having this misogyny, like this lateral violence. (01:05:38.431) If you knew, like my friend Barbara, when I went to court, she says, Marina, once you've done this, you'll wonder why didn't I do this before? And when I did a prayer for this young woman who almost died from a tubal pregnancy, young woman, I said, you're young. I said, in my life, I waited. You've taken on this and you're doing this. You're standing there being brave and knowing that you have the courage to confront a man and to tell that man he hurt you. The whole notion of misogyny and lateral violence of women to other women keeps that perpetual motion of limerence alive and well. And to live in that illusion or delusion for decades without even questioning it. So when I go to elders, other elders that I've grown up with and they're talking to young people and I see them and I hear them gaslighting, manipulating, I hear misogyny, I hear... just in their voice, their attitude, because they just think it's normal. They've normalized lateral violence. They've normalized misogyny. They've normalized gaslighting. And it's the same thing, what I talk about in my podcast is normalizing limerence. So that's why I say when you're trying to heal, Yes, it's going to be like this lady said, you can run by fear base and distrust because yes, men will take these things and same with women. There's this energy, they consume it because that's all it is. (01:07:31.63) Energy is out there to be nurtured and bloom and flourish and, you know, just be alive. And I truly believe, like even when I had to dig those memories from 55 years ago with Mike, beautiful memories. And... And again, too, there's no webs or quicksand or anything trying to attach to me to bring me down into the mire, the mud or the guck. Because again, I chose a different life path. I've never been in a relationship with any man who's cheated on me. I've never been with a man in a relationship who's beaten me, manipulated me, has used my money or I've used him. No, I try to give back when somebody gives me something. And for the white man who came with me to Las Vegas, I gave him a lighter, a simple lighter. But yet it's the work that I had to do to like the gifts of the star blankets, like all that I had to pay back, not just spiritual, but I had to pay back monetarily. And it took like a month. And even now, this is like going on to the end of July, I finally have paid most of my debt in going to Las Vegas. Like I said, my whole life I've lived my own, on my own. paid my way through in the states, in another country, paid for my own education. I've worked hard. (01:09:14.602) So when I have discussions with Indigenous women who sort of poo poo on me, that I, like there's something, they're trying to tell me, this white man you went with, yes, he brought his partner in April. Marina, you I know you wish that he didn't. I know, you know, you want to be with him. I know that, you know, you're just, it would be best, why don't you just tell him to divorce his wife. Like, come on! That's what I'm saying. At what point this woman who's telling me this had an affair with a married man for 17 years and she's saying this about this white man. When I'm trying to say to her, you just don't speak bad of other people. It was a Lakota man who served in Vietnam. He'd come and visit me, and we were talking about hung prayers. And then I talked to my Cree friend in Edmonton, and I talked to her about hung prayers. And there's this balance where we ourselves as individuals pray bad things for ourselves because we have low self-esteem. And the more we attack ourselves, the heavier the part of the balance on the seesaw goes against us. Again, too, environmentally in how we interact with other people. If somebody doesn't like us and they're praying bad for us, or we have the capacity to pray bad for another person, that in itself tips the teeter-totter. So in either case, you don't want to say anything bad about somebody who's hurt you. You don't want to say something bad about yourself to hurt yourself. You want to have that balance, that equilibrium. And it's the same thing (01:11:23.156) with healthy human sexuality you want to have that but the only way you could do that is the public self and the private self have to be in balance have to be in sync and no matter how much you want that it has to it comes with boundaries it comes with with memory and to have the courage to bring those memories forward to help you see yourself in a good way. That you're not praying bad for yourself. At the same time, putting boundaries down so that people who say, know, he should divorce his wife. Like I'm saying, you're praying bad for his wife. Don't do that. Little things in terms of lateral violence and environmental ways of thinking about people wishing someone would die, for example, that's praying bad for them. Now, we're not all perfect and we all have enemies. And so that's why I say protect yourself on a daily basis. you know, embrace yourself with protective, reflective, healing energy, as well as release it. Because for me, having a white friend, a white man as a friend, who I'm sexually attracted to, is a constant. When he's in my mind, it's embracing him and at the same time releasing him. Because in order to do that, I'm learning. I'm doing this to learn about myself and I'm putting it out there so whatever is happening in his life that there are no hung prayers coming from me either consciously or unconsciously. (01:13:14.796) Now that might be a hard concept to understand in a holistic collective sense, but like I said, you need to be born into it. again, if you're not, but you practice it, it's important to find people you trust. And again, even if they just help you in some little way, like this lady on TikTok. She's helped me to express things that I've been trying to express on my podcast Because she's selling a service of helping women But that's her perspective and there's a lot of things I disagree with her But there's a lot of things that are so abstract that like I that they're common experiences for all human beings the reality of it is though there that that ability to pull that sexual history from the very subconscious or unconscious part of you if you're being able to open up to the individual who sexually arouses you. Those things are impactful because we're human beings. We can't turn it off. So how do we adapt in a mentally healthy way? I've tried to educate and I try to do this like I was talking to my white friend. I said this is why I do my podcast. So that young women, Indigenous young women will help to support each other. Especially when the people out there are targeting 14 year old children to be trafficked. And the amount of immigrants that come into Canada that are hunting not just immigrants, but even white men who are hunting our children for sexual pleasure and sexual gain. When I ran away at 17 and I turned 18 in Vancouver, it was an eye-opener for me how sexually available men thought I was. And of course I was, but I didn't realize that (01:15:33.112) This is just the way men are. Again, a lot of things, I do really believe that there's institutional ways of how men manipulate and control women. And like for Indigenous women, it's colonization. For I think white women, it's more of like, we'll call it politics. I found out the name of the website that these Republicans go to. in each of these towns, cities where they beat up poor conferences is called Grindr. Yeah, it's an application that shuts down because there so many men hooking up with other men. And I know the criticism about Muslims too is like what they, just the way they behave in terms of sexuality with other men and how they discredit women as not being their equal. when in fact like heterosexual men in the Americas do the same thing. But it's done under the guise or the umbrella of patriarchy. And I think a lot of white women or women who are not of colour are realising now that they're older and no more sexually attractive to like when you're growing up and you're desirable. you have that privilege. But being a woman of colour, we've never really had that privilege because there's always a price that men are willing to pay for our sexuality. A price to be paid to control us. And that's historical. I was born into it. But I am using my podcast to deconstruct it, to rebuild and have the courage to understand why it's so important to face (01:17:36.076) the man or woman who's hurt you. Confront them and realize and empower yourself to know that you're not afraid. By doing that, you're dismantling misogyny, lateral violence, gaslighting, whatever behavior you've incorporated into your everyday living to survive. That's not your fault. But when you start laterally violating other women because of the pain and the fear you carry, then it's on you. So for women, some women, most older women that I've talked to are totally oblivious to what I say. And that's why I chose not to tell anybody I was going down to Las Vegas, because it's none of their business. Because how many years have they known me and still don't get it? And I'll be blue in the face and six feet underground and they still won't get it. But for the younger women out there who have experienced exactly the type of lifestyle I've had and the realization that it's important to deal with your mental health at a very young age because the opportunity to share your wisdom, you become a young elder. And in becoming a young elder, you have the capacity and the equipment to raise healthy children or to even raise a healthy community. So in my community, like I said, There are a group of young women who've taken on this challenge. I know I don't talk to them as much, and that's okay because I'm watching. And because of that, I try to do my podcast to let people know, you know, I'm encouraging support groups of young Indigenous women helping each other. (01:19:36.979) Because the older we get it's very difficult to do that without casting judgments on like whether or not You can be trusted if you're gonna be cheating with their husbands Like all that fear-based notion I've grown up with in terms of lateral violence because I chose to be single I Like I constantly say I never thought I was a beautiful indigenous woman because I was looking at myself in terms of white ideologies. Now that I'm an elder and I look back at my pictures as a youth, I'm going, okay, I was beautiful. No wonder why Mike was attracted to me. Like I think about these handsome men that were attracted to me and I thought it was just to control me, but really there was an attraction. They actually were physically attracted to me. And as an elder, like to... Jokingly talk about it. It's like like my white friend says Marina. You're like my older sister when you laugh You know, you're you're afraid to to see the truth and and it's it's really difficult especially when you have feelings for for Like when you when you meet a man that you're attracted to it is difficult it is difficult and and I'm just grateful for the experience that I was able to do what I did and the fact that this white man had the capacity to be compassionate and understanding. Even though when you look at him, you don't even think that he's capable of it. I know he's protected himself his whole life, but for good reason. I'm pretty sure when he was growing up and he saw and heard all about mass shootings and digging mass graves in the country he came from. But again, you know, this is what life is. And hopefully some insight that I've given and I continue to give on my podcast does help you out there. And I will continue to do my podcast to the best of my ability. So with that, like I said, it's July 15th. And I'm just grateful for the friendships I have, for the acquaintances I have. (01:22:02.098) and for the legacy I leave behind. Even though I don't know when Creator will call me home, I'm just grateful that there's such a thing as social media.

Tuesday, 14 July 2026

Systemic racism impacts Indigenous communities daily

(00:01.606) July fourteenth. I'll I'll try and make this short and sweet because I think sometimes I get a little boring on my podcast. So what is it? Social media. I'm commenting on a hate crime or a slur and I'll use the analogy of Gulliver's Travels. you know, Govillor's travels went to the island of Lid Lilliput and saw tiny people, went to another island and saw giants. So for me when the Calgary Stampede rolls in, it's like Gulliver's Travels. And and in Gulliver's Travels there was a horses you know, centaurs and I think they were called Yahoos. So and I'm using this analogy in terms of white people who wear cowboy hats, or anybody who wears a cowboy hat at the Calgary Stampede. But there was this Yahoo that pushed this indigenous young man, and the indigenous young man asked him, like, stop pushing me. And the fellow who was drinking came on and said, Well, you know, do you wanna do you wanna be do you wanna go home in a hearse? And then he it f the esc it escalated to the point where this Yahoo says to him, do you wanna be buried like with your ancestors in those Indian residential schools? Now The reason it's an uproar is 'cause it's been on social media ever since the incident happened, trying to identify the Yahoo. Now they've un they've they've identified this Yahoo, but the reality of it is like the Calgary City Police or whoever isn't going to do a damn thing because again, we're indigenous people. This is what happens to us on a daily basis. And and rightfully so for my Not an excuse why I live in an indigenous community. This is my choice. However, just the propensity of the hate like you hear it I mean, I know young people feel it all the time. And as an elder I've I've lived it my whole life. I I it's not like I psychologically block it out. It's it's just the reality of like feel going places where I feel safe. And (02:21.292) Like this morning I had the tribal police come and introduce me to a c a new constable, female constable. we exchanged phone numbers and she is my private constable. And they they do they're doing this for all the elders here in Sioux in which is really nice. Gives me a sense of safety because if I have any emergency anything I need I can call her. And and that's nice. I mean, I don't mean to sound like I'm gonna cry But you know, I I haven't had a partner or children or grandchildren. Even when I traveled to Las Vegas, I was surprised that a young Yahoo said he was gonna come with me and the fact that he spent his own money to fly here and and to fly to Las Vegas with me and and escort me around. I I've never had that ha ever. Like I like I said, it sounds really pathetic that That ha for me as an elder to be seen as somebody so invisible, but again, it comes with privilege because that invisibility is also a way of protecting myself. So the reason I'm talking about this systemic racism or this occurrence that happened at the Calgary Stampede is is an analogy that one of my associates or acquaintances, young woman who's so influential in social media. And again, I listen to quite a few indigenous women on social media and the bottom line is, as Indigenous women, we need to tell our narrative, we need to tell our story, either in book form, theater, whatever media we choose. And this young woman has been getting comments and people talking to her about you know, her advocacy for trying to find out who the perpetrator was, this Yahoo. And the thing is they found out his name, posted it. Now do you think anything's gonna happen to you because the video is obvious, but do you think that the Calgary police are gonna charge him? The statistics this is what this ac acquaintance of mine, and I don't mention her name, due to privacy and most people would have known her too 'cause sometimes she's appeared on my podcast. (04:44.769) her voice at least. And they were saying something about banning or influencing Muslims against indigenous peoples. And her comment was that the statistics are Muslim people and immigrants have more human rights than Indigenous people. And the statistics of indigeno of Muslims and immigrants are reporting hate crimes and having justice like to bear witness to the injustice that was given to them through systemic racism, the charges go to court. Now the reality of that is the truth. And under the Indian Act we we we're not protected. We immigrants have more rights than indigenous peoples. And part of my narrative and part of why people invite me into the city to talk, like people from Africa, we'll say Japan. India is is because they're immigrants. And even though they've lived in Canada for a decade or so, there are still a lot of misconceptions of exactly, you know, what what has happened in terms of history here. the and again I'm just using the term Yahoo offhand. So but I but I'm I'm not describing all Yahoos as being racist, even though me like I'm just using it at an as an analogy rather than saying white people. But a Yahoo, like I said, immigrants who come in, they're I'm not saying they're Yahoos. I'm I'm just saying some sometimes when there's so many different people from different islands and different notions of of like cultural references from their own background. It it's amazing that there's a lack of understanding of w when they're coming to the Americas of of this no this romantic notion or this myth mysticism or something that we'll say the land of the Yahoo has created for indigenous people. those those stereotypes and those mythologies and those phenomenal or phenomena created for the illusion or delusion or illusion to make (07:11.117) people feel comfortable in their own skin. It comes at a price. And and it's okay to feel uncomfortable when you're around me. But but I do I do sense it and I and I will confront it. I have no qualms about challenging people about what they say and how they interact with me. sometimes it's quite annoying that people don't even know they're doing that because they just offhandedly off the cuff have some problems in their own personal lives. Maybe they're not getting attention from the other Yahoos. I I don't know, but they seem to want to gravitate to minorities. And throughout my life I've seen that. I I had a friend of my dad's his his his friend's name was Jack and Jack also had a a son and I went to art school with his son and His son was talking about his parents and how religious they were that they didn't even sleep in the same bedroom, the same rooms, same bed, even though they were married and had three children, two girls and one boy, and how his mother was an alcoholic who would go like away on Monday evenings with his her f girl f her girls and she'd get pissed drunk. really staunch religious family. But the reality of it though is from the point of view of their child was like the you know, this religiosity of privilege that they they knew how to help the poor. They knew how to help indigenous people. Like like as if they were godsend to, you know, help help the poor because, you know, here they are well off. Doesn't mean to say their life in themselves, their private life was perfect. Far far from it. But it's this projection of insecurity that people tend to want to gravitate to the unknown or what seems to be someone or something or some in terms of indigenous people that we need their help. well again, rightfully so, like I said, I've been around white people my entire life. Again, my narrative, a lot of indigenous women haven't had that and some (09:34.871) who have have never been around Indigenous people either. but I've been indigenous people my entire life. And like I said, I've I've got white uncles. I've been around well in white people my whole life. Even when I lived in Utah, I ha I had that's all I had for roommates. And I say because of that I know how different I am. I know how people, even my roommates who I'm living with interacted with me. And at the same time too, it's surprising that I don't know, people just don't think we have emotions or somehow we're we're immune to emotions. like I said, this invisible cloak we wear. Now I I know that people just want to stay in reality, but the reality is A lot of people in the real world live in that space, that disassociated space, that illusional space, the delusional space. a lot of us try to find balance in in in walking this road. I I give credit to this young woman who advocates and fights against and educates systemic racism. That's her narrative. And f w you know, without her I don't think I would have the courage to keep on doing my podcast. Now, why you may ask? Well, twenty years ago when I started my blog, I just typed. Sometimes I'd put out more, like maybe one blog a a w a month or every six months, and sometimes I'd get an email saying, Is this blog still active? that would would realize like, my goodness, I that you know, people are reading my blog. But at the same time too with a podcast it's a little different because it's a narrative. It's a storyline. So I'm going to try and do the best I can. I know I'm a good storyteller. So I'll start this podcast with and like I said, I had to do the introduction because like I said, it's like Gulliver's Travels. I I really love the book and and sometimes when I don't think I'm literate enough (11:59.095) and I realize the amount of books I've read. like it's it's not like you know they say every book you read you become. And so this narrative and how I see myself is like in Gubber's Gub Gulliver's travels. like it's an analogy. And I think in reality that's how the world is becoming. I think I think the more the earth is and this where more social media has evolved has has created this this network. Some of my podcasts go to Finland. some, you know, go overseas and a a large majority of my listeners are American citizens. And I'm sorry but you know, The president of the United States is a sad sack. The President of the United States is so sad. I I can't even comprehend if I were if I had a character and I was acting out like this h human being, people would make fun of me. I don't know how people would even follow me. I mean, look at my podcast. You know, there are probably some people who are so ignorant that that's how they see me, like as if I'm this sad sack. Like poor poor indigenous woman, like trying to make sense out of her life. but the reality of it is like my goodness the amount of crime the amount of just behavior that people have allowed to put up with I mean I know you can't change people for me I I'd sooner live alone and not be around people who assume a hell of a lot about my life. Or or even think like if they associate with me and somehow pick my brain and claim it as their own. that's that's I I'm done with that. I like I know my podcast is open for interpretation and people could take this information and even write a book about about what I'm saying, and that's okay. (14:21.526) That's fine because like I said, I'm just one of thousands of indigenous women who are right you know, who are talking and talking about their lives and how they've lived and managed to grow old or live and just function. Because it's not it's not easy. It it's not easy for indigenous women. The women that I know who chose to have children. It's a far easier life when you choose not to have children and live in indigenous communities. again, what can I say? during the Calgary Stampede, the Sutina police had a float and when I saw it I thought, my goodness, th we do have indigenous people working with our police force, but you couldn't see them. And so this morning I asked the the constable who came, I said, You know, when you had the parade, the men should have wore like the ribbon shirts and they wore a r a ribbon vest made by a a female elder who passed away this week and her funeral her her wake will be on Wednesday and th and then this week will be her funeral. And and this woman chose to have children and she chose to do all the work she could to even foster children. And the amount of bead work and cultural like she was even though she might not see it, she was this artist. And But but everybody just looked at her as this matriarch. Now the fact that she preserved and created her culture and shared it with her children and grandchildren, like that's like I don't want to use the word phenomenal, because it's mixed up with phenomena. she she designed the the T shirts. And I I said to the constable, It would have been nice if the consta female constable wore women ribbon skirts and she said it was just too hot. So I said, Well even to have an eagle feather in their cap, their Stetson hats they were wearing. Anything to do dec you know, t the imagery of like this is indigenous. and she said, like the elder male whose wife had passed away (16:39.052) may have eagle feathers. So so the whole concept of respecting elders is is embracing our culture through through us, through the elders. And I'm really grateful that I've grown up here my whole life and that I could do this podcast. And I I'm grateful when I'm invited and talk about systemic racism so that young people can see how empowered they are. Now, the narrative again. I know I'm a good storyteller, so why why the hell don't I get to it? Again, hold on. It's been smoky outside, so my voice changes because of just anyway. how do I start? Long time ago in a very isolated isolated little house I lived. very often not even seeing another human being for days, years. I mean I'd walk to school when I was five. It was about a mile away. on Sundays we'd walk to church, which was probably about, what, five miles. So as a as a child I walked a lot. And and I also like in my since my parent my family were rodeo people, I I, you know, rode beer back. I used to get on my grandfather's hor horse saddle brat with a saddle. you know my my my relationship with my grandparents, as much time as they could give me, they they did. (18:33.058) But the reality of it is going into the city schools, mixing with white people, and coming home on the bus, being being back in Soutina. I I didn't realise the total impact it had on my social adjustment and development until I started meeting other indigenous people from across Canada who didn't have the same opportunities that I had and who had n h hardly ever been around white people. The whole thing about this too is like my mother was afraid of white people her entire life. And you know, people can't comprehend that. I think people immigrants I don't think immigrants can comprehend that. But it but it's the notion of what Indian residential school did to the psyche of so many children. Much the same too, I think, when children are raised in family violence and they see so much violence. Now Recently on Facebook I saw that one tribe had taken over the sovereignty of their child and family services. And and so like I said, a lot of things that immigrants have more rights because they're not under the Indian Act, even when it comes to their children. Certain things that people just sort of look and say, Indian women aren't good mothers. No, we're under the Indian Act. We're we're under the Indian Act and we've been displaced in terms of our our human rights for for since the beginning. So yeah, that's why it's important for indigenous women to tell their stories. Now, for me, w why do I concentrate on Nathan Chase and horse? well because he's he's just one individual. Th but the reality of he's is indigenous. Another reality is like he's he's Sue, he's Lakota. I'm Dakota. Another thing is like his spiritual practices. I my my mom, her her my aunties, my uncle, my grandfather, all all s you know, spiritual people. so it it intrigues me to understand him. (20:47.938) because of the way I was raised. And it it's like I try to explain you're you're raised a certain way, especially around the languages. And when you're raised that way you treat each other with a certain respect or a certain way of knowing. And Nathan would have understood this, but a lot of people who weren't raised that way wouldn't. And so again it's just a certain quality. I know a lot of people are hypothetical and they'll especially let's call white women Yahoo Yahoo the Yahoo Mares. Yahoo May mayors I'm so silly, but you know, again Gulliver's travels and the y the the I mean am I in the land of lily put? Anyway, w the Yahoo mares tend to tend to whatever forever reason in the in the land of Yahoo they're not satisfied with their male counterparts. So they they think that they can have say over over indigenous men and indigenous culture and mansplay and you know just say that they have the rights to to come into our ceremonies. never having been raised i in in the community but only in the land of Yahoo, okay? So I mean it's I I use that analogy just to make fun because that's how funny it is. That's how funny it is. They they just don't get it. They just and again, I'm I'm from a place where I've grown up around Yahoos. And when a Yahoo says, make it rain or can you predict the sun or the can you predict when it's gonna rain? Can you do a rain dance? like in the Yeah the land of Yahoo when they'd say these ask me these questions, says, Okay, yes I will Because if a Yahoo is stupid enough to think I have power over the weather, then what how stupid are they in other things? Especially when it comes to healthy human sexuality. So, you know, I string him along and say, sure, go ahead. You know, I I kind of like systemic racism, if they don't get it, then let them let them boil in their own juices, their own fat, their own stew. Because you know, w what do they care? Do they really give a damn about? (23:12.78) know, where I live, how I lived. I always use the analogy of like I've grown up my entire life next to the city of Calgary as a child. Yet yet when tragedy hits and somebody dies in my community who's actually been bust into the city and we have the funerals, we don't see white people. like again, the funeral that's gonna happen, there'll maybe be maybe a handful of white people that'll come to the funeral. I don't know if it's what it is about the land of Yahoo that are f they're afraid to go to s funerals or just they have the disconnection of community. But I I always as a child I always thought why is it that they they're you know the Yahoo will be friends with with people in my community but when when it comes to supporting supporting where where are they? Where are they when it comes to grief and helping? o only if you go into therapy, the therapies and you become a counsellor where you sort of get this aha moment of like I am doing good, I pat myself on the shoulder. And and again, why? why go into the therapies? I was talking with a young woman on a project that we've been working on and we're working with elders and one of the elders i li has lived in Calgary and he's not from he He's from the Treaty Seven area. But most of his life he lived he's lived in the city. And she said, Well, we're gonna get him to do some prayers. And I said to her, We're trying to get the Treaty Seven communities involved. I don't think it would look appropriate for you to invite him, even though he's been engaged in a lot of the cities city city structures and and the city uses him. I said within our communities, each of our communities has our own spiritual people. It'll be important to use the protocols to invite these people who still live in the communities rather than within the city. So when I talk about urban living versus country like First Nations Inuit or Metis communities, it it almost seems like like how did she put it? She says, Well I'm I'm I I have my status card, I'm indigenous. I said, No (25:35.514) You have to understand this. You could have your card, but if you've never lived in an indigenous community and you've lived in an urban area your whole life, or or like and and or you don't know you know, you don't really know your relatives, you've never lived, maybe you visited, but the fact is you're so urban that you have you've disconnected from the the very grassroots of the earth, the community. Inuit Metis or or First Nations. I said that in itself says that we have status. Within our own communities, we have our own membership codes. Again, something that was taken away from us. So when we have our own indigenous people who have status cards questioning our values and beliefs for people who are actually living in these communities, it is a problem. And so I'm trying to orientate the fact that there's also lateral violence. And so I tried to explain to her, I said, yes, you you do you do invite me because of my art art background, like the things I advocate for public art. my understanding of just the artist community and the volunteer work I've done in my youth. And even for me to have a Bachelors of arts degree. I I have a painting at the University of Saskatoon Law Library. you know, I've had my work displayed, but you know, I'm I'm it it was very difficult for me to like I'm I'm not even considered like a professional artist. However, it's the reality of my art background that that gives me a bit of clout in especially being indigenous and a female. So a lot of things that this lady and I have had in a relationship Not only that, but she she's she's got a background in psychology. So with my understanding of of childhood behavior also plays into how we communicate and how we get along in discussing certain matters of for example, lateral violence. So I made a comment to her, I said, You we're talking about Sutina and I said, y you know the the the woman who you need to you need to engage with and I I (27:58.212) went on to talk about the the men around who are spiritual leaders. And I said I said it it's one thing to understand this. I said because it's important that you realize this. Even though you're going through women, I said, who are working for the nation, understand this. The spiritual people are male. I it there's still patriarchy in how it was structured. because of the colonial mindset of the Indian agents when they were guard the guardianships and our in our trust funds and and how we establ how we took care of that trust money that was coming in. See people always think it's taxpayers' money. No, this is trust money. Why else do you think the Indian agent Indian agents from all over came into First Nations for work? You know, because they they were managing the trust. Now, even in the treaties. So again, I'm trying to explain to this young woman who has her status card and she says, Well I I give back I said, No, that's that's not that's not the issue. I'm trying to explain to her. It it's one thing, you know, that indigenous people who don't live in communities have their status card. But I but I'm trying to say to her, a a lot of people who are millionaires who have those status cards don't need to access money. I said in a lot of people who do get grants and and do access indigenous monies use a status card even though they've never lived in First Nations Inuit or Metis communities. And my question is how are they gonna pay back? How are they gonna not interest in terms of money, but in terms of like what they're contributing for Indigenous people or the indigenous ways of knowing. So I'm trying to explain to her. You can invite me these meetings and people in my community know me. But there's also this under misunderstanding of like why are you asking ? And I said to her, this is the issue. I said I'm not stepping on anybody's feet because they don't know why I'm invited. They they don't see the art background. They have their own job when it comes to historical references and and what the city does in terms of cultural (30:24.825) heritage sites. each each of the tribes in Treaty Seven have that. So I'm trying to say to her, it's it it has to do with with misogyny and lateral violence. See, and that's the the hardest thing for me is even though she's got a status card and she's working with these public art projects and has all this background and she's trying to help because she's indigenous as her s herself. I have to say to her, there there's a difference between talking to me and talking to this other woman who's from my community. That we are two we're we're both from the community but but it things are different. See, I've grown up here my whole life, whereas this woman married in, had children as a grandmother. And and I made a comment, I said, even how I promote the the young artists within my community that they don't even know I've been advocating for them and and how they they started getting projects and how I advocated for for professional artists to help them and navigate through the system in public art. Now all this isn't just me, it was just it was a catalyst that started off with a group of artists in in Calgary. So that's my background and I'm trying to say to this young woman, the other woman has all this staff. She you know, she she has access to to a lot of things. And mind you, she's younger than me. But but the protocol is that it goes through her husband. And so she says I said, You need to contact the husband and you need to contact the husband's uncle. I said, because you contact them and they will refer you to this woman. And from her she can use access the funds to help these two men, these spiritual men. I said that's the protocol. like for me, if she contacted me, I have nobody. I I'm a woman. I have no status in terms of money. Whereas a man who's who you know, who's lived here in Sutena, if they're married to a woman who's working in the administration office, they ha they have status, they have poll. (32:48.063) And I said, and that's lateral violence, that's systemic racism, that's the way women are treated. Which is different if you're a woman living in the city and has a s have status card. You you go through your own hierarchy with your own organization. But but it's different because you don't know the people like from childhood to when they were teenagers to being married, having children and grandchildren. it's a different if it's a whole different landscape. So in order for her to have the best human experience in promoting her project, which is a huge project in the Twe Treaty Seven area, is to follow those protocols and make the extra effort to to we'll say bond or navigate with the different tribes in in their spiritual practices, which is totally different. Now some people might say, well that's that's so redundant and that's so difficult. And I'm going, No. If if it were a non pr non indigenous person, we'll say from the city of Yahoo, again Gulliver's travels, approaching a tribal a tribal representative, the tribal representative will say we want formal invitation from from the head Yahoo because you're trying to in you're trying to invite our head person. I said those are the protocols and if you step out of boundary with them, it it's going to be harder to to navigate and negotiate networks because each each person like is networking in this web. But understand this, even though you're approaching and talking to indigenous women, indigenous women what however we what however we are seen and however we can help is only a ripple. So it whatever influence I have in stimulating or talking to people is just a ripple. It it takes somebody to actually say, Okay, we're gonna do it and it's usually the wom the woman talking to the husband and the husband saying, Okay, let's do it. Ex as especially too acknowledging the husband with tobacco, you know, with protocols. Those those things. See, I I've never had that and I tried to explain to this young woman (35:11.637) I I've grown up here my whole life. Systemic racism, lateral violence, how how how people see me is totally different than how people see this this woman who's a grandmother. See, I've never had a husband or children or grandchildren. So even how people see me is is totally different because I bring along a different narrative than than most indigenous women or most indigenous matriarchs. My my matriarchy is just something given to me because of my sexuality, because of my age. it doesn't doesn't mean like I'm protected from misogyny. In fact, it makes it all the more critical when I even talk in my own community or I sit in my own com community and how people see me or engage with me because I've had experience with people who just hate me. because I have a voice, because I say my I speak my truth. And and again I'm saying it's important for indigenous women to use whatever narrative they can, poetry, books, podcasts, blogs, whatever means to tell your story is important. Because I'm not the only one who's experienced these things. And even if my listeners, if you come from the land of Yahoo and and we're speaking this language through this this catalyst called social media. The the reality of it is like, yes, I speak English, but the behavior and the protocols, the unseen protocols that I've just lived with, that I've grown up with and that I res like that I l that I tread on lightly, i is is proven. It's proven like I I'll use an example. I had t twin roommates they were Dakota Sioux. and they'd been adopted by Mormon family when they were just babies. And the parents had given them up, three three of the three of them, two the twins and one sister to one family. And about an hour after they had dropped them off in this Mormon f ranch in Montana, the family decided they said no, we'll we shouldn't do this. We'll go back and (37:35.588) pick up our children. We've just we've changed our minds. So when they went back to the the the ranch, the Mormon the Mormon family had guns and told to get the hell off their property and started shooting at them. So they had that you know, again, systemic racism and who's gonna believe Indian people that, you know, these white people have stolen their children. Anyway, that's the story of my my former roommates and when they were trying to reconnect with their parents They're from their like they asked me, if I would accompany them to the Dakotas. So I went and again, you have to be raised and born in the culture and how the community sees people. because there's a certain like I said, my name is Hopah, my brother's name is Chesgay. growing up and hearing those names we j I just thought everybody was talking about me. So there's this connection of like it it might seem idio ediocentric. I'm not sure if I'm saying it right. But the reality of it is there's a certain presence. And and so, you know, I I honor that when I go into indigenous communities, especially with my Sioux background. And I'm and I'm embraced. I'm embraced, I embrace, and then we leave, we we release this. So on the way back. my two former roommates said to me, Marina, you know, we just met our aunt, but when you you just met the met her too, but but you you got along as if you've known her your entire life. Well i it's not knowing her my entire life, it's the reciprocity, it's the cultural protocols, it's the sense of like how to engage. like you you sense it. Like I said, you've got to be born and raised in it to sense it. I think it's like say learning a European language. You know, you hear two Europeans talking and you're going, my goodness, what are they saying? Well, they know what they're saying. They you know, 'cause they they can hear each other. Well, in the same sense, even though the Sioux are speaking English, there's still something and I always c say that there's this great mystery, this energy that that we sort of embrace and I think it's in every culture. I'm not (40:00.144) trying to say it's just I'm using it as an example. And and so I think when people are detached from that type of orientation or that type of structure or the cultural knowledge or even the pride of being indigenous, no matter how poor you are, it it it does have meaning. So like I said That's one thing to have a status card. It's another thing to actually live in the community. It's in it's important to understand the people who you're living with. (40:42.536) it's important to, you know, understand the struggles of people within that community as well. So it's it's not easy. yeah, I don't think any life in itself is ever easy. But I I do want to mention that, you know, again it's important to tell your story. Now I know I I've been sort of itchy there's an itch like a that I wanna scratch, you know, like like yes There there there there is some common sense in in telling people about how I grew up and and the reasoning behind my curiosity around human behavior. I think a lot of times I would look at my parents and wonder why they behaved the way they did. Or even look at white parents who like whose my classmates would invite me over to their homes and I would wonder, you know why are they behaving this way? Some like i it's it's one thing to know that you can speak and breathe and you eat, but it's another thing when you're invited to a white home to spend the weekend and they ask you to take a bath and you go and you take a bath with your sister and they the whole family comes into the bat bathroom to watch us take a bath. Like as if our sexual organs and our nipples and our hair or something in our physical body is different than theirs. (42:23.233) Yes, in this day and age. Heck. I know it sounds terrible as human beings with you know, like my mother, I ha we have a my I have a black niece, her f I think her father's from the Caribbean. And when my sister first got her, she was only a few months old. or d yeah, a couple of weeks old. And my mother she was changing her diaper and she says, She's black all over like Little things like that because we're not me know my my mom in residential school, she said she says we didn't get dolls that were brown skin. We didn't get dolls with white skin. We got black dolls. You know, in res Indian residential school they gave us black dolls to play with. So she was looking over my my sister's daughter and realizing yeah It's not just in dolls, it's in human beings, like they're all black like the dolls. Things like that my mother would say that you know, astonished me and even the fact that bless her heart, a lot of the things she asked me about life, I I just assumed that she knew a lot of things that and again she didn't. I mean questions like why is the sky blue? What happens inside the TV screen, like with cartoons? abstract thoughts. my mother was very gifted in horticulture. she was a very strong Dakota woman who raised all of her children on her own. I mean my father, the early part of my life, you know, was was you know, he was a good provider. But then he passed away when he was fifty two. (44:20.879) You know, it's just the reality of not growing up with a father and managing trying to manage my life. There there were many opportunities, you know, where I could have, could have, shoulda, would have, but didn't take or bite the bite bite any kind of you know, what do they call it, when somebody tries to create a trap, they they put a bait in in the trap so you can go and eat it and they trap you. well that's how I felt about being in a relationship with indigenous men. It's like, they're setting a trap for me. Now, why would I think that? Well, again, because if there's so much violence and that's the only way indigenous man can get a woman, because after after they after they trap you then they they you know, they can do whatever the hell they want to do to you and I just didn't feel comfortable in being trapped. And and so a lot of my conversations with all men, including men from the Yahoo tribe, there's all it's always challenging. And and I don't tend to poo poo it and say, I make life for peop for men who talk to me comfortable. I don't. It it I don't do it deliberately. It's spontaneous because I haven't been around it. And it And I'm not pleading ignorance, I'm just telling the truth. There are are some things I have never engaged with with men, because I've never been married. And and a lot of women out there sort of like who who've ha who've been in relationships and who've had children, you know, it it's important for me to talk to them about their experience so I can sort of get a gist of you know, basically what it is that I missed or didn't miss. And decades ago I flew from Calgary to Salt Lake City and I met a woman who was eighty five. I hope I'm traveling around at eighty five. And we were talking and she said, I was in high school, met my husband that's we got married right out of high school, never knew any man at all and she said fifteen years ago he passed away. (46:45.113) There was no violence, not no like he wasn't messing around as far as she knew. She says she's he's the only man I ever knew. she says, I didn't know what it was like to be single her whole life. She had a husband. So she told me, she says she says, in the fifteen years I've traveled all over the world. Like whatever capital they had mana he had managed to create while he was alive. supporting her, she was able to travel. And she says to me, never get married. She says, I didn't know what it was to ha be free, to make your own choices. And most indigenous women who've been married and who are elderly now, they'll s they'll say, my husband would always check what I was wearing. like what clothes I was wearing, how I dressed, my makeup, my hair. Like I c I can't even comprehend that. You know, I've had white roommates and I've had my own siblings as roommates and and it it bothers me to no end when somebody tells me how I should look and how I should dress or w you know, like really explain to me like how I should function or how should I how would I what I should do to be to be more acceptable or appropriate. Like do you need to take a shower? I'm going, No, I'm don't want to shower. If I'm gonna stink, let me stink. If if do your hair, can I do your hair? Well go ahead. Like, you know, if it's messy, it's messy. Little things that, you know, people just sort of don't realize and I'm and I'm thinking, how c how can I I couldn't like I've never had that. I've I've always had to just do my own thing, take care of myself. groom myself, clean myself, dress myself, feed myself, pay my bills, everything I've had to work for. On my own. And and it it amazes me too how most women who have struggled their entire lives, and I mean like through family violence, through like the affairs, the violence with the partner, infidelity. (49:14.615) just their whole struggle to keep on making money. Even even to the point like I have a lot of people that I knew as teenagers who I went to residential school with. Again the residential school wasn't like the same as most people experienced. This was in Portugal Prairie where we were bussed into the town to go to school and came home to live in the residence. Mind you, years before People actually went to school in the residence, like my grandmother. Th these young women that I've known since they were fifteen years old and and even relatives who you know I've known like throughout my my life and have and I'm friends with, they they chose to have children. the again the marital affairs with you know, divorce, separation, and the fact that they are the mothers. You know, the the fathers seem to just sort of think that they don't have any any part of raising their own children. Whereas in in again under the Indian Act, okay. whereas you know people who live in urban areas who are not indigenous who are not under the Indian Act they can take their partners for child support okay there's no consequences of like what's happening to the children and usually too when parents divorce and like non indigenous people it seems like once the children grow up they sort of disconnect with their parents. so there so the lack of connection with the divorced parents is and the lack of community is is far more of a fracture. Whereas indigenous community tr trying to get child support i is really difficult. But but it can be done. The the only difference is sometimes the man just doesn't work. (51:15.738) So how do you get money from them or they hide it? again to you know, my late brother paid child support, but his his first wife never told his their children that she w they were getting child support, so they always had this hatred towards my brother. and yet again, how women how we see each other, this whole need to be up one notch. Like like that they gotta prove that they're better than than me. One more like for one instance, like my uncle passed away and my fifteen year when w I knew my his his the mother of his only child, she was fifteen when he she first met my uncle and he was like I think four years older than her. So he passed away and I met i his granddaughter this summer and I said to my friend, I said, you know, if your daughter your great if your granddaughter needs any help from escaping her violent relationship, she can call me any time. I I'm here for her, 'cause she she lives in Drumheller. And and again too, like networking like that with with i other indigenous women to help indigenous young women. i is important and it's important for for in women to to know like okay to let other y women know you're not alone. I'm I'm here for you. that's that's just part of the whole narrative, especially when there's so much the word is witnessing a justice coming to you. So The fact that most women I had a friend for thirty years, never collected child support, worked her whole life, raised her children, and yet her husband was from Soutina. Violent man, used to play Russian roulette with his sons while he was pissed drunk, beat the crap out of her. The violence. you know, I was friends with her for over thirty years. I've never had a friend like this. Like I I like I may talk to all of you out there (53:41.399) in my podcast, men and women who are listening. But I've never had a friend like her. I mean I was promiscuous when I became friends with her and we'd go out nightclubbing, well bar bar hopping. And if I felt horny and saw this guy, made contact, made hooked up and you know, I'd tell her, I'm gonna go home with this guy and next morning I'd call her, pick me up and we'll meet you at so and so and she'd be there. knowing that she would never tell anybody like, you know, Marina and I went out and she met this white guy and had her way with him and now I had to pick her up that dirty slut. My friend, no, my friend wasn't like that. And the reality of it is like people in my community used to look at our friendship and I always used to wonder why are they looking at us so strangely? Yes, she was thirteen years older than me. And yes, she was my friend, but we weren't lesbian lovers. I I I jokingly laugh because it's uncomfortable to talk about, because it shows how ignorant and naive I was, but at the same time totally blessed. She was having an affair with my brother all this time. And the reality is like my keeping that secret also made she made she also kept my secrets. But see, years before she passed away We had this conversation 'cause you know, I had taken this man who had brutally assaulted me to court and she said, Yes, Marina, that morning I remember his wife dropped her h his her her his wife's sister dropped his wife off at my place and she stayed with me for two weeks recovery. And I mean, my friend and I talked about everything under the sun. I mean, could you imagine like talking about being a rape victim with a friend? And then and then she's she says, I thought she knew I was having an affair with your brother and I'd say, No. I mean, I I have letters in this in seventy-six, seventy-seven, her writing to me about how she was trying to push Larry away. Now her first husband's name was Larry, so I just assumed she was talking about her ex. I didn't think she was talking about my brother. And I told her that. (56:05.102) And she said, I thought you knew and I said, No, I didn't. But but that in itself, just the friendship of her keeping my secrets and my ho like keeping her secret without really no knowing that that's what I was doing, made for a very unique relationship, in friendship that that I will treasure for the rest of my life. Because at any moment, any given moment, like even today as I'm talking to you. If she were here, I'd pick up the phone and I'd say, hey, let's go out. would say what time? I'd say, such and such a time. Bang. She'd be there. At the drop of a hat. Like I have acquaintances. You know, I have acquaintances for for three years when Nathan Chasinghorse was arrested. You know, I I said I need to go to see him in the trial. This man has been laterally violent to me. talking shit behind my back. I need to face them in court and let know I'm here. And all of these people said, well Marina, I'll come with you. to the point some are gonna you know, chip in or so most of the time they wanted me to pay for everything. And and you know, it was just like my friend, the one I knew for thirty years, sh she would have paid her own way. She would have been there supporting me, she would have come with me. Like like that's what a friend is. Even though the relationship might seem really like in the Christian viewpoint, which again I have to laugh, this whole this whole notion of thou shalt not commit adultery. Like I, you know, it it really boggles my mind that I would have such a friend and I was such a friend to her. Even when she passed away, I organized her her funeral. you know, to this day her children, you know, I they I just I'm so close to them in in a spiritual sense. But I will always hold her close to my heart. (58:24.046) And I miss her dearly. Like I said, I make arrangements with people to do certain activities and and it g doesn't come through. So when this Yahoo a non indigenous white man from another country said he was gonna come to witness, bear witness of the injustice of Nathan Chasing Moore's step forward like my friend would have stepped forward. I accept it like I would have accepted my friend's in acknowledgement. But for him to do that in a spiritual way of stepping in like my friend would have has been so impactful to me. Even after having closure, it it didn't really hit me like how my life would be after But to acknowledge my friend and just the relationship in terms of being indigenous and being single women. I'm single without a partner or children, and she her she's she's living in a community that's not her home community, raising her children, not collecting child support, all because she was afraid when her children grew up they wouldn't have a land base to build their homes. She says, I can't afford to to make enemies of my ex husband or his family. In in some way I just couldn't comprehend that. Again, because I I I'm I'm not a mother. But for her to sacrifice that way, just the things we shared, the intimate moments of like things that you have to give up as an indigenous woman because you're looking after your children and their future. And and I see that with all of my friends. My friend in Edmonton whose whose daughter had to escape a violent (01:00:27.51) a very violent relationship to the point where she was in isolation for about three months, under real debriefing psychologically so she wouldn't go back to him. 'Cause if she went back to him he'd kill her. my my second cousin whose adult children are in and out of s jail. And the fact that they're young men and whatever horrors they experience in the jail while they're there because of systemic racism. i it's it's heartbreaking. Like as a child growing up and seeing my brothers what what abuse they went through by white men and and being a child unable to advocate for them. I I I felt that. I can feel it with my second cousin when she's talking about her sons. Or or my my fifteen my my friend who I've known when she was fifteen and and even her daughter, like like I said, sh She's had to come from Manitoba to rescue her granddaughter from this abusive Yahoo, white guy. and the bel belligerence, the arrogance, the pride, the the like why even talk to me about all the things you know about indigenous people? Why to prove what? That you're a good man, that you're not racist when you're fucking beating the living bejesus out of my granddaughter? Like, you know, excuse me. I wasn't born yesterday. I I can sense when some man is trying to have control over another woman. And I could also sense when a woman, you know, doesn't really respect like other women because of the situation she put herself in. No no other reason. Like I I'm just grateful for for the indigenous women that I do know who are educated. They have degrees advocating for days, weeks, months, years. Because under the Indian Act we we face injustice. and never once going are we going to be seeing justice in the courts for for (01:02:48.41) Like like racism, like you like hate crime, nothing like that. But immigrants who come into Canada who f who who face these these hate crimes do go to court and do get justice. But under the Indian Act, we don't we we we don't get that. It's it's part of the s systemic system of government and how the policing oversees us and how they perceive you know, what we're capable or not capable of doing. And and it's it's a pretty scary system if you're going to be like a state in a state of of observation like George Orwell's what nineteen eighty whatever that book he called George Or Orwell and you know there'd be surveillance everywhere and hey we're evolving. We're we're evolving in social media. we're evolving where even my narrative will go across to Finland, to Germany, to the Philippines, wherever the social media goes and how everybody shares my my story. And and again, sometimes when I s I'm in a conundrum thinking, why am I doing this? I think it's important because I'm indigenous. I think it's important because even though we're you know, say living in Canada or North America, there there the difference in in terms of environment and how people perceive reality is so totally different. And and the fact that even though we believe we're equal, we aren't. And the fact that we believe like we have human rights, immigrants have more human rights than we as indigenous people who are of the land have. The only human rights we have is when we're cloistered in our communities. When we live in our communities, that's First Nations Inuit Metis communities. That's what it means to have a status card, because we face injustice every day of our lives. If you're fortunate to have an Indian status card or Metis or Inuit status card, and you live in the urban areas and you have a job, I hope that job and whatever grants you get because you're associated to (01:05:13.316) That card that somewhere or someplace you will advocate for all those indigenous youth who are living in poverty, who need those monies that the government is giving out so freely now. It's gotten to the point where people have to go to jail because they pretended to be indigenous. They've had to have a ward stripped off of their very backs, like Buffy St. Marie, because she pretended to be indigenous. How pathetic how pathetic can a white woman be? And how pathetic could indigenous men roll down and worship the very ground she walks on as if she's white buffalo calf woman. Come on. You know that's the moral of the story with white buffalo calf woman. Two men approached that calf woman. A cloud came down and when the cloud disappeared it. There was a bag of bones, and there was a young man standing there. Really, when people do not stand up for the human rights of indigenous women and their children, you're gonna turn into a bag of bones, or even how I see you. You're just a bag of bones. Because you're not there. You can't comprehend it. I hear it and I see it and I live it and I breathe it and I support. Those indigenous women every day of their lives working to support their adult children and their grandchildren. I live it and I breathe it and I talk to my friends, just like my friend, like my friend who was there for me, dial her up, let's go. Just like that. She'd drop everything and we'd go out. Everything has a purpose. Everything has a reason. This is just my story. There are thousands of indigenous women who are living this story and some of them are struggling so hard because their children have been apprehended, or they have they're in an abusive relationship and cannot find a way to to run away and get healed. (01:07:34.575) So whatever I can do in my podcast, and this is this is what I I try to to express to people who who think like there's no hope. I I I advocate, I said there is hope. There is hope in the sense that throughout my life I've never ever thought certain things I'd be able to do, certain things that came to me that I never ever thought I'd even live through. So with that, you know, I it it's like just you just cannot give up. My late mother would say, Greater wants us to never give up. And I think about my my my mother's aunties, my grandmothers, they never gave up. And the same with my great grandmothers. The life and how hardship and the prayers of those who came before me means that how I've lived is because of that energy. You know, it's a great mystery. And if we feel it and we sense it, and I know you do, I hope you have a good day. And and again, if I haven't said goodna good afternoon to Darcy and Marie, thank you for listening and I'll do another podcast and hopefully I'll be able to read a book on matriarchy and give some comments about that in the near future. Again, it's the fourteenth of July. This coming weekend is Sioux Valley Wachipi. in Dakota it means the powwow, the celebration, the dance. And then the following weekend is Sutana celebrations. And in Soutana we have a golf tournament, rodeo, fastball, hand game and and powwow. So, you know, it it's people come, people spit (01:09:41.517) save money i in northern communities and other places to come just for that one one event here in Sudina. I know because I've I've done my tarot card readings during the times that I can set up and I've met very many people who've traveled just to come to our celebration. And it and these events are happening all over North America this summer and they do every year. Sioux Valley is celebrating their eightieth year. So imagine. (01:10:17.026) I was I was six years old. wait, I it no, they had been celebrating six years when I was born. So, you know, by the time I could remember making star blankets for my cousin, it was already what let's see it already been going on twenty years. So with that, I just want to encourage indigenous women to Tell your stories. tell tell them how it is and hopefully it'll give some insight into lateral violence. I I mean I I don't I don't ask to have violence towards me. It's just the behavior in which there are certain protocols that need to be met and honored by women for their for their significant other. It's something that's that has been implanted by the colonial way of thinking. And and I don't know how long that will last or even if it will ever go away. But life is very interesting in the sense of the new discoveries of health healthy human sexuality, brain development, neuroscience. even this whole concept of this great mystery that people want to create conspiracies left and right. So with that I hope you s develop all develop critical thinking skills in what is real and what isn't. Have a good day and I'll talk to you later.