“Sandi Boucher is my guest today and she offers Canadians a path to reconciling our differences as a Nation, and a path you can follow to reconcile the differences in your life.
After chatting with Sandi I realize how little I know about the way of life for Indigenous people and what a loss that has been to and for my way of life. Sandi first shares her story of losing her Mother, Father and Daughter, the tragedies that come from being married to abusive partners, and how experiences have led her to where she is today — creating safe spaces for Indigenous Empowerment and Canadian reconciliation.” – Tony Chapman
When Sandi Boucher was growing up, she saw reconciliation was possible — her mother was an Ojibwe woman and her father a Frenchman from Saint-Jérôme, Québec. “I saw that two entirely different cultures can get along beautifully and it doesn’t require either to change who they are. It does require that you accept the other is different and you allow space for that,” she says. It wasn’t until she left home that things changed.
In this edition of Chatter That Matters, Indigenous speaker, activist and author Sandi Boucher shares the strength she drew from her parents, the strength of her belief system and the strength of the human spirit — and how each has carried her through heartbreak, poverty and abuse to the place she is today.
Living proof that your past doesn’t have to be your future, Boucher discusses her journey to becoming a motivational speaker and how she creates space for Indigenous perspective, strong and powerful women, healing and growth and reconciliation and empowerment.
Walking listeners through The Path, her action plan for moving forward, she explains what is needed for Indigenous/ Canadian reconciliation and how to achieve it. Acknowledging the significant amount of work ahead on both sides, she points out the need for personal education, understanding of each other’s differences, individual change and difficult conversations.
“When you read The Path, you realize why reconciliation hasn’t happened yet — because there is still a lot to do,” says Boucher. But she is hopeful it will happen, as long as all people are willing to do the work. “I don’t want my grandkids to become reconciliation experts,” she says. “I don’t want them dealing with the same things.”
Joined by Dale Sturges, Head of Indigenous Financial Services, Chapman shows how every conversation can have an impact on reconciliation — that there is a path forward, as long as everyone works together to move toward the middle.
To listen to this show go to chatterthatmatters.ca, or download Chatter that Matters wherever you get your podcasts, or on these stations:
- Newstalk 1010, Toronto
- CFRA 580 Ottawa
- CJAD 800 Montreal
- CJBK 1290 London
- Newstalk 610 St. Catharine’s
- CKLW 800 Windsor
- CKFR 1150 Kelowna
- Fridays at 1 p.m.
- CFAX 1070 AM Victoria
- Fridays at 8 p.m.
- BNN Bloomberg, CFTE 1410 Vancouver
To listen to Tony Chapman’s CHATTER THAT MATTERS Podcast, download Chatter that Matters on I HEART Radio, wherever you get your podcasts, or at: https://chatterthatmatters.ca
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