Sandra Hayes-Gardiner

About the Author

Book Title

Sandra invites you on a journey every Canadian can take. By digging into her own story, she beckons you to come along to reconcile and make new a flawed history that left out Canada’s Indigenous origin. Join her as she recalls her childhood, cheering on Cree dog mushers, keeping her feet warm in her treasured moose hide mukluks. Join her, too, as she reaches the inescapable realization that she knew little of her Indigenous neighbours and that she had gathered her own set of discriminatory beliefs over the years. Growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s, she absorbed the notions of continuing racism and prejudice against Indigenous people. After graduating from university in Winnipeg she returned home to The Pas, Manitoba and became a social worker with the federal government. She was responsible for removing ‘at risk’ Indigenous children from their families, often sending them to residential school. Profoundly affected by a brutal murder near The Pas in 1971, Sandra eventually began listening to her intuition, and followed her abiding curiosity, the wisdom of Elders and Spirit. She was led to advocacy work with Indigenous communities and developed a passionate dedication to unlearning and relearning Canada’s real history. Sandra faced the task of ‘crossing the river’ between two communities, the mostly white town where she lived, and the Cree nation on the other side, going back and forth, both symbolically and literally many times. You will be shocked, saddened, encouraged and ultimately challenged to ask yourself the questions she asks herself even now—what kind of Canada do you want and how will you be part of that unfolding story?

Books

Book Title

Crossing the River - An unsettling memoir

Sandra invites you on a journey every Canadian can take. By digging into her own story, she beckons you to come along to reconcile and make new a flawed history that left out Canada’s Indigenous origin.

Book Title

The Other One!

It's also super amazing!

Reviews

Sandra’s words are ripe with the power to burst myths embedded deeply, invisibly in how generations of settlers, including my Scottish/English/Canadian family, justified racist white dominance in Canada. Find it in yourself to be changed by joining Sandra in Crossing the River.

— The Honourable Marilou McPhedran

Senate of Canada, Ottawa

Sandra’s struggle to discover what reconciliation means in her own life is evident throughout her story. The various encounters she has had with systemic racism and the continuing impact of injustice experienced by us, as Indigenous peoples, has weighed heavily on her. This book is a great contribution to the new context in Canada. In my lifetime I have moved from the acceptance of colonial oppression to angry reactionary behaviour and more recently I dream of peace and justice on this land.

—The Very Reverend Stan McKay

Moderator, The United Church of Canada, 1992 - 1994

Ochekwi-Sipi Fisher River Cree Nation

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