Winnipeg's own cultural crusader: Orysia Paszczak Tracz (05/04/97)

Winnipeg's own cultural crusader: Orysia Paszczak Tracz

by Jeffrey Picknicki Morski
Special to the Ukrainian Weekly

WINNIPEG - She is one of Winnipeg's foremost authorities on things Ukrainian. She is a writer, researcher and translator with an impressive list of credits, accomplishments and well-deserved accolades. She can also bake meringue cookies that would make Martha Stewart weep.

She is Orysia Tracz and as the city's own Ukrainian cultural crusader, as she is often called, she wears this title well. Who else could draw a crowd to a lecture on folk medicine when the temperature outside is 40 degrees below zero? Who else would have an uncle named Ivan Mazepa? (Mr. Tracz does. Really.) Who else would dedicate so much time, energy and effort toward the preservation and teaching of the rich Ukrainian culture, traditions and folklore in Canada? As she has done for nearly the past 30 years, Ms. Tracz continues to make a valuable contribution to the field, and she remains one of the most visible and respected members of the community.

Ms. Tracz, born Orysia Paszczak in 1945 in Freiberg am Rhein, Germany, is the second of three daughters born to Vasyl and Sofia Paszczak (her older sister Lesia died in infancy). Taken from their western Ukrainian villages to Germany as part of the forced labor movement in 1941, her parents lived at the Displaced Persons camp in Berchtesgaten in the German Alps following the War.

"I still have many memories from the camp," and Ms. Tracz. "I remember telling my mother that I was going outside to play, but I went to school with the older children instead. I was maybe 3 years old at the time. I remember attending until we left for America. They even put me in one of the school plays, 'Lialia Rozheva.' (the Pink Doll)"

Ms. Tracz and her parents emigrated to the United States in 1949, arriving in September of that year at New York City and settling in New Jersey. One of her first friends, she remembers fondly, was the son of an Irish family who lived in the same building as she and her parents. "I remember learning English from my friend Tommy," she says. "It's a wonder that I don't speak with an Irish brogue today."

As a child, Ms. Tracz attended Ss. Peter and Paul parochial school in Jersey City, was a member of the Ukrainian American Youth Association (SUM-A) and attended "Ridna Shkola" (Ukrainian studies school). Her sister Nusia (Anna) was born in 1954 while the family lived on Grand Street. In the late 1950s they relocated to Newark, where Ms. Tracz attended St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic school and remained active in the Ukrainian community.

In 1950, the Paszczaks moved to Irvington in northern New Jersey. Ms. Tracz excelled at high school, completing a program of college preparation courses, and studied German and Latin. "I did all the things that weren't cool," she laughed, "... German club, library council, debating team, National Honor Society." She graduated in 1963 and was voted by her peers as most likely to succeed. Later that year she enrolled at George Washington University in Washington, studying political science and graduating with a bachelor of arts degree.

In 1965, Ms. Tracz met her husband-to-be, Myroslaw, while both were working at the Soyuzivka resort in Kerhonkson, N.Y. They were married at Soyuzivka in 1967 in a wedding that Ms. Tracz laughingly remembers her father calling "too small for even a christening." Her husband, then a member of VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America), was posted to a Sioux Indian reservation in the Dakotas. They spent a year there; Ms. Tracz herself taught school alongside her husband's work in community development. Next they relocated to Winnipeg in 1968 where they have lived since.

Settling in Winnipeg, Ms. Tracz immediately became involved in the city's Ukrainian community. She began working as an assistant to John Serhiy Muchin at the Slavic Collection, Elizabeth Dafoe Library, University of Manitoba, a position she held until 1978. She also worked as librarian at the Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Center (Oseredok) and served as its acting executive director for a short period.

In the mid-1970s, she began delivering a weekly English-language commentary during the Ukrainian program on CKJS, a local radio station. This was later changed to twice weekly, in English and Ukrainian, due to her increasing popularity among the community and with the listening audience.

As a writer, Ms. Tracz attributes the beginning of her work with the written word to an article on Ukrainian Christmas traditions that she prepared for her church bulletin. Quite by accident, it was seen by the editor of the now-defunct New Leisure magazine (Winnipeg Free Press) and published in 1973, leading to a series of articles for the magazine's yearly Christmas issues.

Following this, she began writing for The Ukrainian Weekly, first on an occasional basis and then in a regular column titled "A View from Canada." Numerous other articles, reviews and interviews have appeared in the press and journals in Canada and the United States. Among her work on other publications, of special note is Ms. Tracz's English-language translation of the text to Lydia Burachynska's "Ukrainian Folk Costume" (Toronto-Philadelphia, 1992).

"I have always had a love for books," said Ms. Tracz. "As a child, I remember my mother reading to me all the time. There were always books in the house. The English books were kept on a separate shelf from the Ukrainian ones - this thanks to my father who felt that somehow the Ukrainian ones needed protection from the others. I still remember the first book I ever borrowed from the library when I was about 7 years old. It was on jungle animals and was for a project I was doing in school. I was also about the same age when I remember looking for a word in the dictionary and reading a good way through before realizing the words were listed alphabetically! I could have saved myself hours of work!"

Currently, Ms. Tracz is directing her talents toward "Let's Talk Culture," an extremely popular lecture series sponsored by Winnipeg's Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Center. Now in its second year, her presentations on Christmas, Easter and Kupalo traditions, among others, have grown to include discussions of Ukrainian food, matchmaking and weddings, folk songs, and the rites and rituals of death and funerals.

"I am really enjoying the lecture series," said Ms. Tracz noted. "I get to see the regulars and meet a lot of new people, many non-Ukrainians, too. And the discussions following the presentations always bring up some interesting information. I'm always learning something new."

When she's not crusading culturally, Ms. Tracz juggles an equally hectic schedule outside of the world of things Ukrainian. She is the mother of three sons (Boyan, Dobryan and Ruslan), is beginning post-graduate studies in anthropology at the University of Manitoba and works in Collections Management at Elizabeth Dafoe Library. She is also the current president of Alpha Omega Alumnae and serves on the Winnipeg Library Foundation's board of directors.

But with all of the good, she noted, there is some bad. "I'm terribly disorganized. And I'm a pack-rat by nature. I hate to throw anything out! One of my friends volunteered to come and clean out my house."

Most recently, Ms. Tracz returned from a speaking engagement at the Pysanka Festival, Ukrainian Art Center in Los Angeles. She will be leading a folk art tour to Ukraine on August 11-27. She is again planning a series of Ukrainian radio programs as she prepares to substitute for the regular announcer during vacation time.

Time permitting, she continues to write, review, lecture, edit, translate and volunteer - any one or a combination of which is ongoing at any given moment. Pulling together the over 300 articles from her bibliography, in preparation for a publication of her collected writings, takes whatever is left of her spare time.

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