Andrea Gunraj champions the voices society too often overlooks

September 9, 2026

Andrea Gunraj believes the stories society overlooks often hold clues to solving some of its greatest challenges. That conviction has shaped her career as an advocate, writer and civic leader.

Whether advancing gender equity, leading conversations about civic engagement or writing books that bring neglected histories to light, CivicAction’s Vice-President of Public Engagement has consistently sought to help Canadians better understand one another through the stories they tell and those that remain untold.

Gunraj traces that mission to an unexpected moment in her Grade 5 classroom in Rexdale.

“I overheard teachers talking about two Indo-Caribbean boys in my class,” she recalled. “They were asking, ‘Are those boys from the Caribbean? Are they Indian? I’ve never seen boys like that before’.”

Growing up in one of Toronto’s most culturally diverse neighbourhoods, Gunraj had never questioned the identities of those around her. Caribbean, African and other immigrant families were simply part of everyday life.

Hearing two teachers express uncertainty about her classmates made her realize how little some Canadians knew about communities they rarely encountered.

“I realized that people actually don’t know much about who we are,” Gunraj said. “That made me wonder, ‘What does it mean for us to be known?’ When you don’t write about yourself, speak about yourself or listen to one another, you are never truly known.”

The realization became a defining moment.

“It helped me understand that to know takes both the listener and the communicator,” the senior non-profit executive pointed out. “It takes everybody being involved in that communicative process. So it made me into somebody who wants to tell under-told stories and speak to under-told issues.”

That philosophy has guided Gunraj throughout a career devoted to public service, community advocacy and writing.

It also forms the foundation of her latest book, Go-Between Girl: My Indentured Roots as Reclaimed Present which explores the largely overlooked history of indentured labour and its enduring influence on contemporary society.

Long before becoming a respected civic leader and author, Gunraj had developed a deep concern for people living on society’s margins. She witnessed the effects of mental health challenges within her extended family and saw people in her community who were isolated, excluded or struggling to find support.

“I always think about what it means to be different, to be left out or to be seen as the other,” The Writers’ Union of Canada member said. “Every day, when I go into the community and see someone who is underhoused or homeless, I wonder, ‘Who is going to care for that person? Who is going to be there for them?’”

Those experiences continue to shape her work.

“We all have people we rely on, and that is a privilege I never take for granted,” Gunraj said. “What continues to drive me is seeing people who are excluded, treated as outsiders and not recognized as contributors. What are we missing by treating them that way? And what are they missing when they do not have the community connections they need?”

Among those who profoundly shaped her worldview was Garnet Smith, a quiet and dedicated community volunteer.

As a child, Gunraj noticed that he always seemed to be standing during church dinners, school events and neighbourhood gatherings.

“I used to think, ‘This man just loves standing’,” she said. “Only later did I realize that he didn’t love standing. He loved serving.”

Smith, who passed away in 2017, volunteered at her elementary school, church and throughout the Rexdale community and his example became a lasting lesson in generosity.

“I remember wanting something from him one day, and he said, ‘I can give you that, but why don’t you give?’”

Those few words stayed with her.

“They helped me understand that it is better to give than to receive,” Gunraj said. “Ever since then, I have asked myself, ‘What can I give? What voice can I give? What story can I give? What support can I give?’”

Only years later did Gunraj fully understand the extraordinary resilience behind Smith’s generosity.

He had spent 14 years at the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, an institution that became associated with systemic neglect and abuse. Growing up in segregated Nova Scotia, he endured profound hardship.

“That makes his commitment to serving others even more remarkable,” she said. “He had a difficult life and realized he needed to be a voice for children in the system. He became an important voice in Canada and certainly an important voice in my life.”

Growing up in Rexdale also gave Gunraj an experience she now recognizes that many Canadians did not have.

When she speaks with people from other parts of the country, she often hears about the isolation they experienced as one of the few racialized students in predominantly white communities. Her childhood was different.

“I saw myself reflected in the schools I attended and the community in which I lived,” Gunraj said. “Growing up in a predominantly Caribbean, African and Asian community opened my eyes to the diversity of the world.”

Rather than viewing diversity as unusual, she experienced it as part of everyday life.

“I feel that people who grew up in monocultural communities missed out on something,” Gunraj said. “Living in a place like Rexdale opens your eyes. It helps you understand differences and encourages curiosity. You do not have to agree with everything, but it teaches you to ask questions and recognize that the truth often lies somewhere in the middle.”

Despite those positive experiences, Gunraj has also faced moments when others underestimated her abilities.

One occurred early in her career while she was working for a rights-based organization. She applied for an internal position but was passed over. It was only after a change in management that she learned why.

“The first manager, who was a White woman, didn’t think I could do the job,” Gunraj said. “Maybe she thought I was too young or inexperienced.”

The incoming manager saw her potential differently.

“She was a woman of colour, and she told me, ‘I heard what was said about you, but I think you’re smart. I believe you can learn, and I’ll help you’.”

The experience reshaped Gunraj’s understanding of leadership.

“It prevented me from pursuing an opportunity, but it also showed me the power of mentorship and sponsorship,” she said. “Believe in people before they have proven themselves. When they are treated as partners, they often rise to become partners.”

Gunraj has carried that lesson into her own approach to leadership.

“Whenever I hire someone, I think about that experience,” she said.

Although many people regard Gunraj as an accomplished leader, she rejects the idea that success is a destination.

“I don’t love using the word ‘success’,” she admitted. “From the outside, it might look one way, but on the inside, it feels very different.”

Like many high achievers, Gunraj often struggles with the feeling that she has not yet arrived.

“I often think there is some elusive sense of success or belonging that I haven’t reached yet,” she said.

Over time, however, Gunraj has learned to challenge that thinking.

“Maybe what I’m doing today is what matters,” she said. “There isn’t some special future state I need to reach. What I do today is important because tomorrow isn’t promised.”

Despite regularly meeting senior executives, public officials and community leaders through her work at CivicAction, Gunraj still questions whether she belongs in those conversations.

Redefining leadership has helped her overcome those doubts.

“I don’t enter those rooms pretending to have all the answers,” she said. “I go in asking, ‘What can you teach me?’”

For Gunraj, curiosity is a far more valuable leadership quality than certainty.

“We’re not there to prove ourselves,” she said. “We’re there to listen. Sometimes I can help connect ideas because I’ve heard different perspectives. Maybe I can contribute because I understand what people in different sectors are saying.”

Gunraj believes that approach can help bridge the divides that often impede meaningful progress.

One of her greatest personal struggles has been what she calls ‘the fear of irrelevance’.

For years, Gunraj worried about whether her work would matter. Today, she views that fear differently.

“I’ve come to believe that we are all irrelevant,” she said thoughtfully. “We’re only here for a short time. What matters is not fame or recognition, but the difference a person makes. We have only a limited time to make an impact. Whether that impact is large or small isn’t really up to us. What matters is what we do with the opportunity we have.”

The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced that belief. 

During the crisis, cleaners, retail employees and childcare providers -- workers whose contributions often receive little public recognition -- were suddenly considered indispensable.

“For a brief moment, we celebrated them,” Gunraj said. “Then we stopped. Why? Their work is just as important.”

She now sees dignity in every contribution, regardless of a person’s position or status.

“It’s all of us or none of us,” Gunraj said.

Throughout her career, several mentors have quietly helped shape her path, including her first supervisor in the non-profit sector.

“She brought me into rooms where I didn’t think I belonged,” Gunraj said. “She treated me as a partner before I had proven myself.”

That confidence transformed the way she views herself.

“I don’t think people talk enough about the importance of believing in someone before they have anything to give you,” she said.

For young Canadians struggling with their identities or wondering where they belong, Gunraj offers simple but powerful advice.

“You do have something to contribute,” she said. “People who feel like outsiders often possess some of the most valuable perspectives. They’re on the outside looking in. They see things that other people don’t.”

Gunraj said the challenge is finding the courage to share those insights.

“If there is something you can write, something you can say or even one person you can talk to, do it,” she noted. “Storytelling is about seeing and sharing what others haven’t seen.”

Writing has become one of her principal ways of doing that. Gunraj credits the post-colonial writers she discovered at university with inspiring her literary voice.

“I loved how sharp they were,” she said. “They were saying things other people weren’t saying.”

Her novels have explored overlooked lives and unexpected human connections. Her latest book examines another neglected chapter of history, the global system of indentured labour that displaced millions of people and profoundly shaped societies around the world. 

“It’s the under-seen story of racialized indentureship around the world,” Gunraj explained. “The question is whether it was freely chosen or coerced labour. The truth lies somewhere in between.”

She believes the legacy of indentureship continues to shape contemporary society, from the infrastructure on which Canada was built to the modern gig economy.

“Our railways, for instance, were built in part through the labour of Chinese indentured workers,” Gunraj said. “The gig economy also reflects this idea that if people don’t labour, they don’t matter.”

Rather than presenting indentureship solely as a historical subject, she hopes readers will recognize its continuing relevance.

“I wanted to tell the specific truth of my own experience and then expand it into something universal to which everyone can relate,” Gunraj said.

Even after publishing several books, she is already considering what she might write next.

“I don’t know what it will be,” she said with a smile. “It might be a novel, it might be non-fiction or it might even be a graphic novel.”

Gunraj reflected on a seemingly ordinary childhood memory that, in retrospect, revealed the storyteller she would become.

As a Grade 8 student, she played steel pan in her school band. When a reporter covering one of its performances interviewed her, she said she preferred playing steel pan to piano because ‘you couldn’t play calypso on the piano’.

Gunraj’s steel pan teacher later complimented her, not for her musicianship, but for the thought behind her answer.

“I was so thrilled that he understood what I was trying to say,” she recalled.

Looking back, Gunraj realizes that moment captured the essence of the person she would become.

“I am someone who hopes to tell stories that other people don’t tell and recognize experiences that others don’t see,” she said. “Then I try to make those stories relatable.”

It is a mission born in a Rexdale classroom decades ago, and one that continues to shape Gunraj’s writing, leadership and enduring belief that understanding begins with listening to stories that have too often gone untold.