Sandi L Boucher started this podcast to continue her work on women's empowerment and reconciliation with Indigenous communities. She points to Haudenosaunee grandmother councils as historical models of matriarchal power, and argues that colonization disrupted Indigenous gender roles. The conversation between Sandi and Millie shows what cross-cultural friendship looks like in practice.
Chapters
Why I wanted to do this podcast. And then I'm going to turn it over to Millie as to. To explain why she agreed with me, why she agreed to go on this journey with me.
All right?
So for me, it was really rooted in my work. So long before I moved into. Morphed into the reconciliation work, I was all about empowerment. If you watch my very first videos, they were all about the empowerment of women. And I now know at, like, a deep base level that so many First Nation communities and nations were matriarchal. The women were the ones who ran the nations. And that's not a power thing. That's like, if you look at the Haudenosaunee, which in English is the Iroquois, if you look at their nations, they had grandmother councils. And what they believe, and still believe to this day, is that only a mom or a grandmother could decide if an issue was serious enough for her son to die, serious enough to send the warriors out. And that's why the women, they were matriarchal, because the women understood the price, right? They understood the price tag. But I always say, imagine, and I use an Elmer fight cartoon when I talk about the settlers arriving. Welcome to the white people.
On behalf of white people. On behalf of people with speech impediments or a staffing dog.
I just thought, you know what, Instead of making him look like some dark bad guy, he's just here doing his thing, right? Really aware of what's going on. But.
Well, and that's. That's probably the bigger part of it. Yeah, it's lack of awareness and self.
Awareness, but that's what I always imagined. And if you thought you were laughing before, wait till you hear this.
Okay, I'm going to put my.
I always imagine this little settler dude coming into his first, like, matriarchal Indigenous community and seeing the women in charge with strong voices running things. And the only thing that goes through his mind is, my wife must never meet these women, right? Because think of Europe at that time. Wife look pretty, don't say anything, Stay in the other room until I need you. Right? Very much. So what happened is it became part of colonization, is to destroy that matriarchal system. They put the treaties in the name of the men. They refused to negotiate with the women, and. And they taught our men how to hate us, and that's missing. And murdered Indigenous women and girls, right? So for me, it was at a deep level. I believe the empowerment of women and specifically Indigenous women ties into my reconciliation work, that until we're at a point where we're not talking over people. I'm not talking about attacking, I'm not talking about aggression, but I'm talking about confidence and self determination and assertiveness. So. And the other thing, because it's you, I know that I was one of those women or one of those indigenous people that really didn't believe for a long time that I could ever just be me in an indigenous, non indigenous relationship. Obviously, I don't believe that anymore, or it would make me the biggest hypocrite going and I wouldn't be able to do my work. Yeah, but I thought with us, I know our relationship and the way we laugh and goof off and even when we're talking about serious things. And I thought, what a perfect example to show people that I'm not less of who I am. Because I'm talking to you like it's the same and it is possible.
