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. 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?