Meet Sandra Dunn
Some people write stories. Sandra Dunn has spent a lifetime making sure stories aren't lost.
Whitney Pier is an ethnically rich and culturally diverse community that grew around the steel industry more than 100 years ago. It became home to people from Poland, Ukraine, the West Indies, Barbados, Croatia and many other places who left their homes looking for work. They brought with them their language, traditions and a desire to work hard and live well. Their stories helped shape Whitney Pier into one of the most culturally diverse communities in Canada.
Sandra understood early that those stories were worth preserving.
What began with collecting memories, photographs and artifacts grew into decades of work with the Whitney Pier Historical Society and eventually the Whitney Pier Historical Museum. The society was founded by a group of like-minded people who wanted to capture and preserve the rich stories and culture of Whitney Pier, and it became a passion project for Sandra. Under her guidance and fueled by that passion, the society flourished.
Sandra became a tireless advocate for Whitney Pier, collecting stories, organizing and helping lead the effort to create a permanent home for the community's history. Today, the Whitney Pier Historical Museum is housed in the former Whitney Pier synagogue. Within its walls are artifacts, memorabilia, scrapbooks and fragments of everyday life, but the real heart of the museum is the people who bring those objects to life through story.
Visiting the museum should feel less like touring a collection and more like visiting a parent, grandparent or great-grandparent and being able to ask, “What was it like in Whitney Pier when you were my age?”
Sandra and her colleagues created more than a museum. They created an experience of comfort, belonging and connection.
From preserving stories to writing them
That same fascination with people, memory, belonging and resilience runs through Sandra's writing. Her stories are grounded in the places and personalities she knows, but their themes reach far beyond Cape Breton.
Sandra Dunn has published award-winning short stories, poetry, plays, newspaper columns and children's writing. Her work has appeared in Our Rural Writes and other publications. Yesterday's Tomorrow is her first novel.
Sandra wrote her first novel at age 87.
Sandra's work reminds us that shared history matters, that differences enrich communities, and that stories help us understand where we have been, become more present in where we are, and imagine where we might go next.