Ukrainian Canadians prepare to mark centennial (12/31/89)

Ukrainian Canadians prepare to mark centennial

by Chris Guly

OTTAWA - Films, a summer musical troupe, art exhibits, a youth exchange, family homecomings and even a forest are some of the events planned to mark the centennial of the first Ukrainian immigrants arriving in Canada in 1991 to 1992.

In an exclusive interview, Zorianna Hyworon, national co-chairperson of the Ukrainian Canadian Centennial Commission, said that plans were introduced at the recent 16th triennial Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) held in Winnipeg on October 9. The year will feature "programs that are community-based, have a grassroots focus and will involve every Canadian with a 'Ukrainian connection.'" That means in-laws, people living in a predominantly Ukrainian Canadian region of the country, friends, neighbors and coworkers."

The centennial year will be launched on Canada Day, July 1, 1991, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and will include a re-enactment of the landing of the first immigrants. It will coincide with a national meeting of the Ukrainian Business and Professional Federation of Canada.

In September 1891, Ivan Pylypiw and Wasyl Elyniak arrived in Halifax to scout land suitable for immigrant settlement. However, it's believed that some Ukrainian fought in the War of 1812 and records indicate that the first Ukrainian may have arrived in North America as early as 1608 somewhere in Virginia.

As an example of what the commission means by having a Ukrainian connection, the Elyniak family has successfully traced 1,500 people in its family tree. In 1988, there were nearly 1 million people of Ukrainian descent living in Canada - 59 percent of those living on the prairies.

The official launch of the centennial year is scheduled for September 1991 in Edmonton, near Edna-Star, the site of the first permanent settlement in June 1892. Similar settlements were established in Pennsylvania two decades earlier. A series of hall-of-fame dinners will be held across the country, with the major event taking place in Toronto in March 1992. Throughout the year, 100 living and 100 deceased individuals will be honored for their contributions to the Ukrainian Canadian mosaic.

The centennial commission will mark Canada's 125th birthday on July 1, 1992, by holding regional celebrations from Sydney, Nova Scotia, to Victoria, British Columbia. The centenary year will officially close in October 1992 in Winnipeg at the 17th triennial Ukrainian Canadian Congress. The first Ukrainian Canadian Youth Congress will be launched to coincide with the UCC meeting.

Based on their first meeting held in December 1988, the 10-member commission hopes to focus on three themes during the centennial: commemorating and honoring the past, celebrating the present and creating a vision for the future.

The commission has targeted five different project areas on the national, provincial/regional, local, organizational (such as youth groups) and the family (reunions, homecomings and individual (artists) levels.

Ms. Hyworon suggests that the commission's intent is to inspire and challenge. As such, centennial celebrations will be a departure from the way the Ukrainian Canadian community usually marks an event. No standard formula featuring a banquet and concert will be used. Yet while the commission will entertain all creative ideas, she insists that it is not a new delivery organization.

Although, the Ukrainian Canadian Commission will fund projects national in scope, it will rely on provincial and local committees to sponsor regional ideas. Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta have already established provincial centennial commissions, while Quebec and Ontario are in the process of establishing similar bodies.

Walter Bozdek, fund-raising manager, says that the commission hopes to raise $4.6 million with 44.2 percent coming from corporate sponsorship and 32.5 percent from the federal government. Half of acquired funding will go towards staging events and exhibits. Mr. Bozdek is hoping that corporations like American Express and PepsiCola will underwrite certain events.

That would help two proposed museum exhibits. The new Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec, has expressed interest in acquiring a prehistoric artifacts display from various Soviet institutions.

The Saskatoon-based Ukrainian Museum of Canada has agreed to sponsor the show, titled "Treasures of Ukraine." The Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Center Oseredok in Winnipeg will present its own contemporary exhibit, "Many Ways to be Ukrainian," on recent Canadian lifestyle trends.

Winnipeg composer Danny Schur has proposed a musical using electronic music and a traveling summer performing troupe. Mr. Schur recently wrote an oratorio for the Millennium of Christianity in Ukraine based on the life of Crown Prince Volodymyr of Kiev who introduced the faith in 988. The Canadian Ukrainian Opera Company has commissioned an original work to coincide with the centennial.

A video series on Ukrainian life in Canada, a planned TV sitcom and a visual arts exchange involving Manitoba artists are other artistic events being discussed.

The commission is also hoping to acquire a national site at the Halifax dock where the first settlers arrived. Ms. Hyworon adds that a wall may be erected where families would be able to purchase markers as to when they arrived in Canada - similar to the model used at Ellis Island, N.Y. The group is also looking to place markers throughout Canada indicating Ukrainian settlements. The Canada Post Corp. has been approached to launch a special centenary stamp.

From the solemn to the satirical, a "Uke and Tuke" hockey game is planned to feature former NHL hockey stars of Ukrainian descent.

A youth section was especially created within the commission's mandate. In addition to the 1992 youth conference, the group is organizing exchanges for rural and urban Canada, to different regions of the country and one involving Ukraine. A family tree kit will be distributed to schools across Canada to trace lineage and children will sponsor and possible plant trees to create a Ukrainian Canadian Forest.

Ukrainians arrived in Canada in three distinct waves: 170,000 before the World War, 68,000 during the inter-war period and close to 40,000 following the World War II.

Ms. Hyworon sees the centennial as "a special chapter in the history of Canada and a page in the history of the Ukrainian people."