on June 20, 2013 at the CanadInns Regent.
Dear Friends,
This is such an unexpected, overwhelming honour. My deepest thanks to the Board of the Osvita
Foundation – Vicky Adams, Marusia Haluk, Ken Romaniuk, for the nomination. And apologies for messing up your schedule. When Vicky called, she said the date was June
6. I replied that I was going to be in
Australia. Deep silence on the other
end. They had to scramble to find
another date and location. Also, my
thanks to Susan Zuk and Natalia Sovinska of MPUE.
This morning when I logged on – it said -- on the
calendar: you have no events scheduled
today Thu Jun 20, 2013 (I guess I was getting ready for Australia)
I’m not sure that I should be up here. Over the years, I
have contributed to Ukrainian education and information – but it’s for ulterior
motives – selfish ones. The research and
the writing has been for me. If I could share it, that’s a benefit, but
primarily I do this for myself. Ever
since I can remember, I have wondered about why we Ukrainians do what we
do. Why this custom, why this food, why
this ritual on this holy day, what does this song mean? The reply from my parents was – bo tak, bo
tak maye buty, bo tak vse robyly --- because, because that is how it is
supposed to be, because it has always been this way. Bo tak.
Not good enough, especially for the unusual, sometimes
strange customs. As soon as I was able,
and as soon as I had access to reference material, I began to find out “why.”
And have been doing so for decades now. The more you find out, the more there is to
learn. I wrote for myself. That first article on Ukrainian Christmas was
to be for me and for a church bulletin, then Peter Crossley, editor of The New
Leisure Magazine of the Wpg Free Press saw it, and the next thing I knew, it
was on the front page of the magazine on Sviat Vechir in 1973. The next year, he phoned in November that he
needs another article. This went on for
six years. The Ukrainian Weekly picked
it up, and the next thing I knew, I was a columnist – and still am. The translating came about the same way. The sources just in Ukrainian needed to be
translated into English and, again, this benefitted the mainstream.
I don’t seek projects out, usually. People find me. If I can, and know the subject, I’m happy to
help. I enjoy the search and the
adventure. The same thing happened when
I started leading the tours to Ukraine – the late Irena Zadravec asked me to
take a group, and I’ve been doing it for years now. And the same with my trip to Australia – out
of the blue I got an email inviting me.
What a problem, eh? They found me
somehow.
When my husband and I came to Winnipeg, we did not know a
soul here. And yet I was not worried at
all, because I knew there were Ukrainians here. When we came to Winnipeg on our
first exploratory trip, I had one name, Zoriana Hrycenko, whom I had met years
before at Soyuzivka in New York State.
Through a roundabout way, we found her and her family, and they became like
family. Pani Anna Hrycenko and her
daughters Zoriana, Vera, and Oksana, and Oksana’s husband Dr. Jaroslav Rozumnyj
welcomed us – total strangers - into their home, drove us around and fed
us. And pani Hrycenko even “kidnapped”
us from our hotel – “Mama won’t let you stay in a hotel – I’m coming to pick
you up” – this was at about 2 A.M. She
even packed us box lunches for our trip back to South Dakota. We also met Josie and Boxie Klymkiw, who
invited us – again, strangers -- to their Boxing Day open house. I remember meeting a teen-age Taras Babick
there.
Over the years, Winnipeg became our home, and we’ve made
many close friends, to whom I am so very very grateful.
My husband Myroslaw and I are so proud of our sons Boyan,
Dobryan, and Ruslan, who have grown up into accomplished young professionals
who continue to be proud and active members of the Ukrainian community. They
attended the Ralph Brown program – Boyan from the very first class with Marusia
Haluk. Boyan and Ruslan are far away,
but Dobryan just made it back from a conference in Washington!
I was fortunate to become part of the University of
Manitoba family when Mr. John or Serhiy Muchin hired me for Special
Collections. It was so sad to hear of
his passing on Sunday. I had been
thinking of him during the last weeks, and talked about him during my stay in
Sydney and Melbourne. I learned so much
on so many topics from him. He survived
the Holodomor and World War II and was a font of information and memories. He will still be at the University, because
he donated his catalogue of all Ukrainian publications in Canada from 1906-1991
to the Archives, and I am inputting it into a database which will be accessible
to all. Vichna Yomu Pam’iat’.
One thing that was a constant during my ten years in
Special Collections, in the Slavic Collection, was the number of adult students
who were taking Ukrainian and Ukrainian subjects. Their comments were along the line – “I’m
angry at my parents for not teaching me the language. I knew it while Baba was still alive, but
after she died, well, they didn’t keep it up.
So now I’m learning it myself.” I
lost count of the number of times I heard that.
Many of these students are what I call “born-again Ukrainians.” They missed out on their language and
culture before, and are now catching up.
The children in the Bilingual Program have the advantage that the others
did not.
Interest and pride in ones heritage and culture cannot be
forced – it is learned, and is absorbed by osmosis. People who are comfortable in and proud of
their heritage pass it on to their children just by living their lives. Kids who are force-fed all this Ukrainian
stuff get turned off, often later to regret it.
My parents lived through very tough times. Living first under Polish rule in Western
Ukraine, then during the war, the DP camps, then immigration to the U.S. really
messed up their lives. They had no
choices – all was a Hobson’s choice.
Somehow they survived and remained true to their Ukrainian nation and
identity, and passed that on to my sister and me. Mama always sang, Tato always had books and
newspapers around, Mama taught me to read in Ukrainian when I was about 4 ½ --
she worked, and did not always have time to finish all the kazky – fairy tales
I wanted to hear. Through my early years I never felt self-conscious or ashamed
of being Ukrainian.
What a contrast to the treatment the first pioneers got
here, and how it continued until recent times.
Vicky had told me how she was punished by the teacher for speaking
Ukrainian during recess (in the 1950s) – and was told to “talk white.” How this has changed, now with the Bilingual
program in the schools.
When I learned English at the age of four on the Jersey
City, NJ streets, one day I came home and said to Mama, “Mamo, I want milk.” My Mama later told me that she froze
inside. She did not survive the war and
all the hardships to have her child speak to her in English! She told me, “Dytyntsiu [very endearing term
for “child”, in our home we speak only Ukrainian.” And that’s what we did. My sister Nusia and I are so grateful that
our parents raised us in a Ukrainian home.
And our children are, too.
There was a connection to the program Down Under last
week. The wonderful band Tut i Tam (from
Saskatoon https://myspace.com/tytitam ) was a main feature at the 65th Anniv. of Ukrainian
settlement in Australia. The name Tut i
Tam is an in joke. I explained this to the folks down
there. The first reader for the youngest
children in the Bilingual program is titled “Tut i Tam”. Every Ukrainian kid in Canada knows the book,
and Sirko, and all that. The band is
named for the book. Sirko didn’t travel
to Australia with the band, but was there in spirit. http://www.yevshan.com/main.asp?cid=779&pid=1021
I am proud that my work contributes to Ukrainian Canadian
life and identity. The more we learn
about our heritage, the better. There
are a few projects I’m working on now, including the Rusalka Ensemble’s 50th
anniversary book – still accepting memoirs from present members, Alumni, and
anyone involved with Rusalka. My other
project – and here I’m using the old “if I tell people about it, I’ll have to
do it” approach – is compiling my many Ukrainian Christmas articles into a book
– for launch next fall. If there are any
philanthropists here tonight, please see me later!
Again, my humble thanks for this honour.
1 comment:
A big diakuyu/thank you to my son Dobryan who arrived just in time from his conference in Washington, D.C., and sang for me at the banquet!
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