Ep.24: Shayla Oulette Stonechild | Founder & TV Host | Reclaiming Power
Fellow The Brand is Female Podcast Studio host, Shayla Oulette Stonechild joined Mungi this week to discuss her work, the issues affecting Indigenous people today, and reclaiming power.
Shayla is at the forefront of Indigenous women's wellness. Utilizing her skills as a powerful speaker and thought leader, Shayla is the founder of the “Matriarch Movement', a non-profit organization dedicated to highlighting Indigenous voices and providing wellness workshops to BIPOC women across Canada. In this episode, Shayla describes the origin story of Matriarch Movement and how the name came to her in a dream, she discusses how her mother's work had an impact on the work she wanted to do and speaks about her Indigenous women role models. As a television show host and trauma-informed yoga instructor, Shayla offers Mungi an enlightening perspective that comes with being a trauma-informed yoga instructor, as well as how it allows people to reclaim their power.
As a Mètis and Nehiyaw Iskwew (Plains Cree Woman) from Muscowpetung First Nations, Shayla has always been a catalyst for Indigenous youth and women unlocking their full potential. Through her work, Shayla hopes to bring often difficult, yet necessary, Indigenous topics into mainstream conversations. In this conversation, they discuss several of the issues affecting Indigenous communities today that are still commonly overlooked, and how we can return to an Indigenous worldview.
Full Episode Transcript
Mungi Ngomane: This week I spoke with the wonderful Shayla Oulette Stonechild. Shayla is the founder of matriarch movement, a non-profit that is focused on shifting the narrative around indigenous women while indigenous communities are not a monolith. Shayla spoke about the many issues affecting them that we may not be paying enough attention to and highlighted that their basic human needs are not being.
No matter who you are, Shayla's words will resonate with you. As she seeks to help people reclaim their power and stop us from losing sight of our true essence and solves the purpose. Shayla Alette Stonechild welcome to the Everyday Ubuntu podcast. I'm so excited to have you on. I've literally been asking the team if we can get you on for two months now.
So I'm very excited to have you.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah. Thank you so much. Hi. Hi. I'm glad our paths are finally connecting virtually and online right now. It's been quite a while, two months. So I'm happy to be here.
Mungi Ngomane: Thank you. I'm going to start by asking you the question. I ask all my guests and it's about our resumes and how they're obviously not a full explanation of who we are as a person.
And so I'm wondering, what's missing from your resume that you think people should know about.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah. So I'm actually like I'm very into like astrology and to like really knowing yourself. And for astrologers out there, I'm a Pisces sun, Gemini moon, and Cancer rising. And. So highly, I'm a highly sensitive person and I'm Claire-sentient.
And so I absorb everything around me in regards to energy, what's not said in the room. And so I actually need a lot of time alone, even though I'm very public-facing. I actually do a lot of cleansing and purification of my own energy because I pick up so much around me and the world. And so that I guess reflects in what is needed for me.
The work that I do. So yeah, there's a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes that I keep dear to me. That's not really out there online.
Mungi Ngomane: It's also important to know that about yourself. A lot of people don't know that and I think they allow themselves to get burned out because they think oh like this public-facing persona of mine is like everything.
And then they're not aware of what they need to recharge.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Exactly. And I think even just having these conversations and de-stigmatizing it creates, the need for honouring your body and honouring the nourishment that your body needs. And I believe in, honouring cycles and honouring seasons.
And I feel like, for me, I know myself now. I know myself within the seasons and so in Summer, I'm very externally focused, very assertive, very out there. And then it comes to the winter and I'm now moving into a new cycle of, incubation and nourishment and training and learning. And I'm really looking forward to that because I can feel my soul just needing that nourishment right now.
Mungi Ngomane: Oh, I love that. I love that. What do you see as your purpose?
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: My purpose work has always been. I think for me is to feel really at home and at peace with myself and in love with myself so that I can give from that overflow and help my community. And so I feel like my purpose is to be a catalyst to other people realizing their power and reclaiming their truth and reclaiming their voice.
Especially as indigenous people, I feel like we have been historically and presently suppressed throughout comedian history throughout politics throughout every sector of life. And so I feel like my purpose is to, if I can show another indigenous person how powerful they are, I feel like that is my purpose in itself.
Mungi Ngomane: And, also speaking about you mentioned reclaiming your voice. I know that you're a trauma-informed yoga instructor, and I'm wondering if you could speak more about that and the perspective that sort of comes with that.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah. So I think just knowing, as indigenous people, we are walking with historical and multi-generational trauma that was inflicted within our bloodlines.
And so being a trauma-informed yoga instructor, I feel I took training. I took as a 17 or I took like a 17-hour trauma-informed training and there I was given, tools to teach in a certain way through yoga. I feel like really trauma-informed is just understanding that each one of us is probably walking with some form of trauma.
And how can we honour that? And how can we give people that have been historically suppressed their power back? So utilizing, a trauma-informed approach is really giving the space and the options. People to reclaim their power. And I, and so I think even just having that concept of walking into a room with those concepts and with that lens, it changes how you interact with your students.
Mungi Ngomane: I like this idea of reclaiming power.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah. And I think even the word just power is it's interesting because when you look at people who have had power throughout history it's Gendered male-dominant people. And so I think even just some people don't want to use the word power.
And I think, as indigenous people, it's important that we start to reclaim our power because it has been lost throughout history. And so even the power dynamics that come with, just language.
Mungi Ngomane: Absolutely. And I feel like we're maybe in a time where we're, I dunno, possibly like redefining what power is because I think the pandemic created such a shift in what actually was important at the end of the day and what is going to survive the test of time.
So I feel like we're in shifts, like shifting what power is. These days.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah. And I think the last, like a hundred, I don't even know how old Canada is through colonial terms. In the last 153 years, there's been the toxic patriarchy has been in power and I feel like.
Traditionally, in Indigenous communities, some had matriarchs at the forefront, or there's a balance of the masculine and the feminine. And so I agree. I believe there's a shift happening now where, women throughout the world. And knowing that's also even a colonial, like what defines a woman?
So I don't want to get so in-depth with language, but I feel like there is a big shift happening within the power and like the toxic patriarchy and all this, these colonial empires and ways of being are now like being destructed and dismantling because it's not for our health.
It's not for the betterment of our world and for our planet. And you can see that through what's happening within society right now. We have the pandemic, we also have what's happening with climate change. We have so many things happening and it's because of the harms that have been done for the last 153 years.
Mungi Ngomane: Absolutely. And speaking of toxic patriarchy definitely are on the opposite side of that and you are the host of a podcast called matriarch movement, but I know that it's also a nonprofit. And so I wonder if you could share the the origin and the mission behind Matriarch Movement.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah. So I've been working with indigenous communities ever since I was really young, honestly, I grew up around it because my mother, she owned a nonprofit called Sun works arts and cultural society. And so she was going around to first nations communities putting together. Not health and wellness, but it was health and wellness in a way of performing arts.
So like dance modeling and acting. And so she was working with indigenous youth. And so when I was young, I would see her utilizing this space and working within our communities. And so she allowed me, the site as to what's capable. And so the matriarch movement came to me in a dream in 2019.
Yeah.
Mungi Ngomane: No dreams are very big. in my culture is I love, yes, if I have a dream, I'll wake up I'll be like mom, this happened. And she's everyone in your dream is a part of you. So which part of you is this person? And I'm like, oh, I don't
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: know. I've been warned so many times about certain things like I've had pre-cognitive dreams.
And I feel yeah. When I'm not, when I'm not taking care of myself, I don't have access to the dream world as much as I do when I'm like really in alignment. So this came to me when I was really in alignment when I had been going through I think two years of training now, and I wasn't teaching, I was just focusing on myself and I was on my healing journey.
I had actually asked a question cause I like came through came through a reading or something that was like, if you want an answer to something, ask it before you go to sleep. And so that's what I did that night. And I was like, I have this idea, but I don't know what to call it. And I had this idea of bringing, wellness workshops to indigenous communities, specifically to indigenous women.
And then I woke up at four in the morning and it was like the matriarch. And that's all I had. That's all I had in my dream. But then it was like, just those two words, solidified what I have in putting together. And it created the connections that I needed. And I woke up at four in the morning with a buzz full of energy and some spiritual
practitioners may be it's like the Kundalini awakening, they call it, or like some kind of was an awakening. And it got me out of bed and I was wired until 11:00 PM the next day. Cause I just I just had so many ideas flowing through me. Where it came and that was in I believe 2019.
And then I realized, in order to create this reality, I need the support of obviously indigenous women, which I already had a ton of support. And so I actually I had applied for a few grants and for funding. And unfortunately I never, it never happened, but I had been hosting an AP 10 show at the time.
So I actually put forth some of my own money to make the first official photo and video shoot with 11 indigenous women out on the west coast. Yeah. And so for, and they volunteered their time. And so I actually, right now, I still have these 11 interviews. That's what I wanted the, I wanted to, because throughout history, our stories have always been told from a colonial perspective and our stories have always been told as we're either missing or murdered or we're drunk or we're dead, or we're dancing.
We're always told in a historical lens. And so I'm like, this is not what I see represented. And I want to shift the mainstream consciousness. And I feel like social media is a tool that gives us the tool to shift consciousness. And so I think, the matriarch movement, it's a nonprofit, but really it's also an online platform and a podcast to support our voices and to share our stories the way that we want them to be shared.
But we do we partner with other organizations to provide wellness workshops that intertwined meditation movement and medicine, which is really really coming back to an indigenous world view coming back to our teachings that have been here. Before colonization.
Mungi Ngomane: And I, I totally get what you're saying about the sort of like the way that people tell stories about you and your people.
Lately I've found that a lot of people want to do like documentaries on South Africa and my family. And it's always like white men. And I was in a call last week. There was some woman who was a black woman who was helping out on the side of my family. And she was like, I want you to explain to us why you two white men can be telling the story, like, how are you going to navigate being in a country where you don't understand.
The like the different values and the way that they go about life, like, why should you be the ones telling the story? And I was like, oh, yes. Yeah.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah. And if you look at it, it's it has a reflection to what's happened here in Canada of the exploitation and the extraction of our lands and our territory.
The same thing is happening through our stories through media. And so it's like really history repeating itself in a modern day era when it comes to like our digital timelines, it also happened to the organic timelines. So yeah, there's definitely some like parallels throughout history and now,
Mungi Ngomane: and, you being the storyteller here, what are some of the issues affecting indigenous.
Maybe specifically girls and women that you think people are not paying enough attention to.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah, there's a lot. There's unfortunately a lot that that is still. Existing within first nations communities. And I think it's also, it also affects other non-indigenous people. And so I think also realizing that this is not just a first nations or an indigenous issues, this is like Canadian and a global issue.
And one of them is the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and the two-spirit crisis. That's currently affecting our nations across turtle island. They've documented. Over 5,600 cases. But I know the number is a lot higher because in Canada they've even had a database for missing murdered indigenous women and girls until 2010.
And yeah, so it's like there, the numbers don't match up. And unfortunately, and fortunately enough, like indigenous communities have taken it into their own hands and they've started to, document. And keep the data themselves. And also they start to do their own searching and that's, what's really unfortunate too, is I know that, if a white woman goes missing you'll see it across the news, but as soon as that.
Yeah. And as soon as it happens to one of us, it's oh it's almost feels like it's an everyday occurrence because it is. And you don't have to look very far to see that, genocide is not a thing of a past it's it's ongoing and it's, I think it's thriving to a point.
And we also see that through the lack of clean drinking water. If you're in Canada, I believe the last time I checked, there was 51 communities without access to clean drinking water. And so really indigenous people are just asking for our basic human needs to be met. And it's the year 2021. And I know Canada can be seen, helping out globally and it's okay when are we going to actually take a look at what's happening in our own backyard?
Because there's a lot of stuff that That needs to be fixed. And I think, before we can see reconciliation take place, we need the healing, but we also need the truth to be shown. And so that's finally being shown in June with the unmark, the mass graves, I think a lot of indigenous children being found.
I think a lot of Canadians are now coming to the terms of the reality is that we have always known as indigenous people and that this country has been built upon the lives of. People and children. Yeah.
Mungi Ngomane: I did an interview I think a few months ago with a black Canadian woman who basically said she was like, whoever does Canada's like PR does it really well?
And I was like, yeah, because the rest of the world were just like, oh my God, they're just so nice. And we don't look into the actual issues that are happening.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah. Yeah. And that's Canada thrives off of the erasure of indigenous people and off of the lies that they tell within the education system even if you go to school, you're not really shown any of this.
I feel like it's now slowly changing. But at the time, like when I went to school, I had three pages on indigenous people and they weren't even from. They weren't even from Canada there are others. Yeah. So I was confused. I was like, does that mean, this is where I'm from? I was just like so confused as a kid.
And so I think there's a lot of cognitive dissonance that happens here in Canada. And it's because, if Canada started telling the true history, it would have to like the federal institution, the government would have to come to terms with the accountability and they don't want to come to terms with accountability because they're guilty of.
Genocide and apartheid, and that could be taken to international courts. And so that's why there's a big a big PR play happening because Canada is accountable for crimes against they've been committing crimes against humanity.
Mungi Ngomane: Yeah that's one of the big fears is like the international court and then also the reparations that they would
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: have to pay.
Yeah, exactly. And I, and it's also strange though, because at the same time right now that I think is spending like 500 to $600 billion fighting indigenous children and residential school survivors in court. And it's why aren't you utilizing that money? And some other way, if you're for, the 94 calls to action, the truth and reconciliation report, why don't you put
that money towards, our communities or to clean drinking water. I there's just so many what's the word it's Orthodox when it's so many ironic things happening at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like that's what kind of is, oh,
Mungi Ngomane: Also, as I was reading about you reading your website everything you were saying reminded me of Ubuntu, but I also realized that it was, it's like an indigenous sort of worldview is where you're coming from.
So I wonder if you could talk about what an indigenous worldview looks like and how we returned to that.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah. So I think an indigenous worldview has to be, led by indigenous people. It has to be in relation to indigenous communities and really that's returning back to source. It's returning back to the land.
It's returning back to our languages. Reclaiming an indigenous worldview is based on respect. It's based on creating our super cool relationship. And it's based on reclaiming, our relationship based approach to the land, the water, the earth, the sky ourselves, but also to one another. And I'm Nikki out, which means, which translates into the four aspects of being the four directions.
And so that's the foundations within the medicine wheel and the medicine wheel is a teaching that's really prominent across a lot of it. Cultures and communities, and it's a circle that represents the interconnectedness of everything and everyone. And on the inside of that circle is you yourself, your highest self.
And then on the outside of that circle is your support system, your family, your blood line on the outside of that circle is your community on the outside of that circle is a globally. And so working within your medicine wheel you as your highest self and then helping out on a global scale eventually.
So I think, those teachings they've been here since. Time and Memorial and they really they connect this to creation and they connect our individual self to the universal consciousness or individual consciousness, the universal consciousness. And so I think for us, that's something that we can all maybe learn something from, because we have.
Just a history of so much fragmentation within ourselves and then manifested within the world collectively. And even when it comes to our relationship to the land, a lot of us are disconnected because of colonization and capitalism. And I think a lot of the answers lie in returning to the organic timeline and returning connection to source one that you can't profit off of or exploit or steal.
And I think that's needed for humanity's Ascension at this time too. I feel like. We are constantly just running on a habitual loop, expecting a different outcome without looking at it like a new way, right? Yeah. Yeah. So there's an indigenous worldview. I also don't want to like pan indigenize. Cause there's over 600 nations here in Canada.
And so we all come from a distinct language and values. And so there's different concepts and teachings out there, but they all connect to the same thing and that's connection to source and creator. I
Mungi Ngomane: love that. And This is like a bit of a random question, but also when I was reading, I saw that you were the first indigenous woman to be on the cover of yoga journal magazine.
And I think it said it was in 2021. So this year, and so at first I was like, it's just so weird that we still have these like firsts happening in 2021 to me, but also. It's so weird that we know that yoga did not originate and this like very white and Western world. So I was like, how did that make you feel?
Cause it's like, how, why would you be the first in 2021? That is just so wild to me.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah. No, same. When I took my training and I, yeah, like 2019 or 2018 around that year, I, that was one of the first things I actually Googled than I went online because I was like, oh, I need to. A key to manifestation is to like, one of the keys for me is to find people that are doing similar things as you.
And so I was looking for I was looking for a role model or an expander in that area. And when I searched it nothing. I don't even think nothing came up. But what I did see was other past COVID. What would you call it? Cover girl, I don't have remodels. They were actually culturally appropriating, a lot of indigenous culture.
And so that was like so it was like a sill. I don't know. Being on yoga journal. I did it so that my story, and because I wanted that space to be taken up by an actual indigenous person, but at the same time, you do have to look at the Western the Western side of yoga and how it has been capitalized off of as well.
And so I think there was also some, some learnings through that process itself of how can we honor. My, my lineage, but also in the lineage from where yoga comes from. And I want a question like more of like, how are these big productions giving back to the people. And so that's something that I'm really curious about too, but yoga journal was great to see.
I was actually really. That they put a lot of my thoughts onto that article because I sat down with their journalists and, for the first little bit of the interview, I was just, I was holding back a lot. And then there was a thought and I was like, this is the one chance. I have maybe not one chance, but this is like a chance to just unsensor yourself.
Just say what needs to be said, say the truth of your life, but also your families and your bloodlines and of Canada. And so I just, I went off. I was like, yeah. And I just was like, I was unfiltered, uncensored. And I was like, okay, now it's. I'm curious to know how she's gonna formulate this.
And she actually did it in a really powerful way. And so I was actually really I felt supported in the outcome and sometimes as I'm sure you can also relate to is sometimes it's hard to feel supported in these positions that were put in. And so it was good to see, and it was good to see the outcome too.
There was like so many younger indigenous People that were inspired by that. And it showed that we can exist within these colonial spaces. And so that was, yeah, it was really cool to see that manifestation is not just a word. It's an actual, you can make your dreams a reality.
Mungi Ngomane: I'm glad to hear that, she put the words down the right way.
Cause yes, once you've said all you need to say and you have it out there I think you have to get it out of your body. And so there is the reward that comes with that, but to do that non-stop and like never feel supported is also exhausting. So I'm glad that, that there was something that was given back.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah. Yeah. And I, her name's Wednesday, I want to, I got to get better. I got to get better at names. Yeah. Her name is Jose. That's great.
Mungi Ngomane: And you okay. You mentioned like youth and I was going to ask you, if you had like a piece of advice you wanted to share with some like indigenous youth in Canada.
Yeah. It's a weird time everywhere. So if there's something you'd want to share with people.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah, I think it's, I think knowing that it's a weird time and like really being gentle with your spirit and allowing yourself to not always have to be, on or seeking or, constantly establishing yourself out in the world.
I believe, like I said, at the beginning of the podcast honoring the cycles within your life, But also honoring that, when you're the first one to do something in your family, it's going to feel really intimidating and it's going to feel really like nerve-racking because you haven't seen it been done before.
And so I think sometimes when we don't see it, we can like start to disbelieve our own selves. And yeah, so I would just say stay committed and. I realize that we were never given the tools or the lens to even know what is capable out there. And so don't be afraid to imagine bigger than you have ever before, because we have always been living in a state of survival.
And we now need to shift into a state of creation and you're probably going to be the first one to do that. So just know that you're like, even though you may feel alone, you're actually divinely, supported and guided throughout your life. And that's through calling upon your ancestors that are healthy calling upon your.
In a good way, calling upon your guides for science, synchronicities, and symbols, to come through your dreams, through the people that you meet through the opportunities that you seek. And when you speak things into existence, when you create a relationship with the other realms and we'll actually write.
And return to yourself. And so I feel like as much as I, I do my work, I Shayla it's a lot more, it's bigger than just Shayla. And so just know that your goal and what you're inspired to do is also bigger than just you and you have the support of the past present future to be painlessly
Mungi Ngomane: that wasn't even directed at me, but like I'm taking that as well.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah, I think and that's the effects of. I bring up colonization so much, but that's the effects. It's they want us to believe that we are separate and we're fragmented and to focus on our individual success in our individual self. And we need to get out of that, like that way of thinking, because.
We're connected to, it's like it's metaphysics and it's science and spirituality are now catching up to what indigenous people have always known. And that our external reality is a reflection of our internal world. And we were giving these ceremonies and these practices and these languages for a reason.
And. We have a set of tools. We have everything that we need for our Ascension within our own bloodline. And so to know that I just feel like wow, indigenous people are so powerful. No wonder they wanted to try to wipe us out because we knew the natural laws of the universe. One that. One that can't be stolen or recreated or exploited.
And so I think just knowing that you have all the gifts and the tool, it really helps during darker times, and also just like to honor the darker times too, and to honor the cycles and to honor, the polarity of life itself.
Mungi Ngomane: Wow. Thank you for. Like literally, I know you weren't even directing that at me, but I'm 100% I'm taking that on board.
And you may have partially answered this in this last question, but I also wonder, like what sort of keeps you going in difficult moments and
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah. To be honest, I the last year or so, I've actually been working a lot with plant medicine. And so I work with flower essence. I work with I work with Herb's and I work with plant medicine.
And so I find. In times where I feel overwhelmed, I resort back to, my tools my ceremonies, but also to the earth and to the plants and to the nutrients into like life source itself. And so that's something that I have to remind myself every day too. And I think, not getting caught up on the long-term vision and just taking it day by day is also essential, especially right now.
Yeah.
Mungi Ngomane: And who are the people who have inspired you? Do you have maybe some indigenous role models that you could share that, that the rest of us could also be looking to?
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Yeah. Yeah. There's so many great and inspiring and digital people doing great things in the world right now. This one girl I'm actually inspired by right now.
She is a indigenous yoga instructor as well. She actually posted a video on. I was a few months ago, but she was intertwining her language with yoga and yeah, so she was actually speaking her language while teaching yoga. And it was like a fusion of these two worlds together. And I was like, wow this girl seems like this woman seems so rooted.
And her name is Amanda Thompson. And so I actually just messaged her this morning. That's why she's like fresh in my mind. And so I'm inspired by that whole concept. And also Jessica Bauer Broward, when Bard, when I don't know if I'm saying it she's also farming, a young native woman's yoga initiative and she is doing the same thing of bringing, our practices and intertwining it with yoga philosophy and the language.
But there's also a lot of people on the ground doing the work in different. One of my friends, mobile, Aqua Kwok, who is, who was the MP for Nunavut, she's is anyway. And she has been constantly using her voice within governance within the federal institution, speaking truth to power. Same with Jody Wilson Raybould.
And so these indigenous women that, at times are feeling so alone, probably in their careers and literally going on into the house of commons, the house that has harmed our people and still speaking truth to power I'm like that, that is, that would get that's. What gets me up in the morning is, realizing that there's indigenous women throughout turtle island that are really Standing in their power and using their voice in new ways.
And I think that shakes the foundation of what Canada has been built upon is just our existence. And when we utilize our guests in these ways
Mungi Ngomane: thank God for these women. Right?
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: There's so many, there's so many I could go on and on. And
Mungi Ngomane: what is your greatest fear for humanity?
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: I think my greatest fear for humanity is that we lose sight of our true essence and our soul's purpose.
And I think in return that we lose sight of what it means to be alive. I think right now there's a lot of people that are looking outside themselves for answers. And I think a lot of people don't even have access to their basic. So how can you really thrive in a world that doesn't even meet your needs?
So I guess my greatest fear is that we lose sight of humanity and when we lose sight of our connection to one another, and
Mungi Ngomane: then what's your greatest hope
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: that we reclaim that connection to each other and claim our connection to ourselves and to this earth.
Mungi Ngomane: I love that. I love that. Shayla, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
It was like, so lovely to speak with you.
Shayla Oulette Stonechild: Thank you so much for having me. I hi.