5 minute read
Ukrainian Visitor to Vegreville Region leaves with Wealth of Knowledge about Ukrainian Immigrants
Ukrainian Visitor to Vegreville Region leaves with Wealth of Knowledge about Ukrainian Immigrants
Kalyna Country Ecomuseum Trust Society - Submitted
Orest Zub calls Lviv, Ukraine home but you will rarely find him there. Instead go online and google NomadMania.com and you will link up with an app created and managed by Orest and his partners as they visit countries throughout the world.
As Orest describes, “I am a traveller, blogger and online entrepreneur from Lviv. I've visited over 134 countries including many conflict regions and could not imagine the war will come to my own country. Currently, I am on a mission to inform the global society on what is really happening in Ukraine.”
Orest was guest speaker at an event in Calgary and travelled on to Edmonton. “In general my trip to Edmonton and region is to learn about the history of early Ukrainians who arrived in Alberta over 100 years ago and meet a few representatives of modern immigrants.”
In 2012, Orest was in Lviv between “world” trips and provided a two week guided tour of the Carpathian region in Ukraine for Barry McDonald from Wetaskiwin, Alberta. Having stayed in contact since then, Orest recently advised Barry he was coming to Alberta and wondered if Barry could assist him with finding resources to learn about past and present Ukrainian immigrants.
McDonald put together a resource team to join Orest on a sight-seeing and information gathering tour of Mundare and Vegreville. Team members included:
· Jars Balan, Administrative Coordinator of the Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre, University of Alberta;
· Karen Lemiski, Curator and Associate Director, Basilian Fathers Museum, Mundare;
· Natalia Toroshenko, founding member of “Stand With Ukraine” a group formed to assist recent Ukrainian immigrants, Vegreville;
· Louise Chomlak, Chair, Kalyna Ecotourism Society and active N.E. Alberta historian;
· Len Baron, active genealogical researcher;
· Oleksander Dzhyha, a recent immigrant to Vegreville.
The following note is a personal summary submitted by Oleksander Dzhyha, a recent Ukrainian immigrant to Vegreville sharing his personal views of the visit.
“Thank you, Barry McDonald and Kalyna Country for a friendly meeting with blogger and traveler Orest Zub. The opportunity to share my experience and impressions of the city of Vegreville and the wonderful and hospitable Canadians who help newly arrived Ukrainians, worry about everyone affected by Russian unprovoked aggression, cruelty and war.
It was interesting to learn more about the history of Canada and how several waves of Ukrainian immigrants have contributed to the building and development of Canada and its prosperity. How they managed to preserve the Ukrainian language, culture, identity and love for the Motherland - Ukraine.
This is a good example for us of how to adapt and maintain a high level of responsibility and activity of the Ukrainian community, which was set by previous generations of Ukrainian pioneers who went through a much more difficult path than we are going through now. They didn't have the special support that we have, thanks to the Vegreville Committee. We received a lot of help, we knew where we were going, we knew what was waiting for us in the city, we saw where our children would live, the masses have video communication technology and we can communicate with our parents and relatives who left Ukraine two years ago or a year ago. We don't live in dugouts in the field, we don't fight wild animals, the Canadian government gives us the opportunity to learn English and adapt to the English-speaking environment more easily.
In the days of the first pioneers, there was no other information or courses except the Ukrainian Gospel and faith in the mercy of God for a few families. It was interesting to hear about the research of Ukrainian genealogy. My conclusion from this meeting is that we, Ukrainians, people with Ukrainian roots, and everyone who loves Ukrainian culture, need to unite and influence global processes, to be friendly and united. And just like the Jews who were scattered around the world and preserved their culture for 2,000 years, we Ukrainians must turn the curse and grief that unjustly came to our land into a blessing, see it as other people see problems, see opportunities.”
Kalyna Country Ecomuseum Trust Society was established in 1991 on the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first Ukrainians in Canada and is committed to preserving and showcasing Ukrainian and other cultures in the 20,000 km² geographic region.
