Ukrainian Canadian

The former orphanage worker-turned documentary filmmaker debuted her second film about Ukrainian orphans last night at Hot Docs in Toronto, ‘High Five: A Suburban Adoption Saga”:

Julia Ivanova premiered her first film ‘Family Portrait in Black & White’ 2 years ago at HotDocs which featured a Ukrainian women who adopts almost 30 children, which more than half are black who grow up in Ukraine.

This year’s film showcases the trials and tribulations of a B.C. childless couple who try and adopt two Ukrainian sisters from a orphanage in Horodnia (northern Ukraine), 7-year old Alyona and 8-year old Snezhana. The couple later learns the sisters have three siblings and try and adopt them all – 15-year-old Sergei, 16-year-old Yuliya, and six-year-old Sasha.

The film shows the challenges with adopting children across the age spectrum, with the eldest having the most trouble fitting in. Yuliya used to be the children’s protector, but finds that’s no longer her role, and struggles for independence from her new parents as she reaches adulthood. There is a language barrier at the beginning of the family’s relationship, but the parents did not show any signs of learning any of the children’s language in the movie. The parents face their own struggles connecting with the children at times, and the financial difficulties with adopting all of them (the movie claims around $200,000) and how it has drained their savings. The father is a nurse who eventually works up in the arctic a month at a time for additional income, and the mother is on disability from a car accident (which is the reason they did not try to have their own children).

The children also have to deal with the physical and emotional battle scars of their past – we are told some have learning disabilities (which are not thoroughly addressed in the film), Sergei suffers from lack of a growth hormone that leaves him only 4’6” tall entering adulthood, and at least one girl appears to have some form of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. The younger children appear to adapt better than their own older siblings, who want to return to Ukraine to visit their old friends.

The movie itself provides a good glimpse into the life of an adopted family and the struggles of immigrating, fitting and growing up. The movie is solely focused on the family and offers little into any politics (there was a state-wide adoption ban from the government) and life outside the family (there is little footage of the children’s past lives in the orphanage). Julia even interjects herself into the documentary, especially during conflicts, when the children shut themselves off from communication. She is able to interview them in their native Russian to hear their true feelings no whatever matter is pressing them. Filming the family in their home most of the time can certainly be challenging, as the camera cannot be candid in their small house – sometimes the conversations that the family have feel a little forced, most likely to save face in front of the camera. Nonetheless the true feelings do come out and are captured in the film, making it worthwhile to see.

High Five: A Suburban Adoption Saga airs again as part of Hot Docs:

Today, May 1st at 4:00 PM at the Isabel Bader Theatre (at the University of Toronto campus near the ROM)

Saturday, May 4th at  4:00 PM at The Regent

The CBC has also written up an additional preview on the movie

Friday marked the 27th Anniversary of the Chornobyl (Ukrainian spelling) disaster. Apart from the annual honouring of victims, the surreal stories of the suffering populace at the hands of their authoritarian rulers remain hidden – effects which still linger to this day:

• The Soviet Union stayed silent after the explosion, exposing Ukrainians to the deadly radiation while Communist apparatchiks were evacuated from neighbouring cities.
• The event was finally uncovered by Western media two days later when Swedish scientists detected the pollution, but its effects were still vehemently downplayed by the Soviet Union as mere propaganda.
• Western aid was allowed into the country after an entire year of painful suffering and lack of medical care.
• After the fall of Communism in 1991, Russia became the successor to the Soviet Union, inheriting it’s wealth and nuclear domain. The original Soviet statistics which are still used to this day claim only 30 lives from this catastrophe, but much headway has been made recently from researchers to gain a more accurate understanding of the suffering

Just how much was the Ukrainian public kept in the dark about Chornobyl? While the Soviet Apparatchiks were evacuating, the rest of the unsuspecting were celebrating ‘May Day’ with a parade on the streets a few days after the accident, 60miles away:

After the fall of Communism in 1991, Russia became the successor to the Soviet Union, inheriting it’s wealth, nuclear domain and arguably any legal liabilities that stems from crimes against humanity, genocides, etc. The original Soviet statistics which are still used to this day claim only 30 lives from this catastrophe, but much headway has been made recently from researchers to gain a more accurate understanding of the suffering. Yet people would minimize the effects on humans in order to push books, or bad movies.

Last weekend a telethon was aired to raise money for local Canadian charity ‘Help Us Help the Children’ to aid affected children with summer camps:

You can donate below:

HELP US HELP THE CHILDREN
A Project of Children Of Chornobyl Canadian Fund
2118-A Bloor Street West, Suite 200
Toronto, ON M6S 1M8

 

Tel.: (416) 604-4611
Fax: (416) 604-1688

E-mail: cccf@bellnet.ca
Website: http://www.huhtc.ca

Find us on Facebook: Help Us Help The Children

Registered Charitable Organization Number 1369 09538 RR0001

From your cell phone: Text GIFT to 45678 to donate 10$

The latest in the struggles for Ukrainian-Canadian issues such as the Holodomor and WW1 Internment to be included in the upcoming Canadian Museum of Human Rights continues to get worse:

After fighting for a spot at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights, Ukrainian-Canadians are asking just how much respect coverage of the Holodomor will receive when it’s located right next to the bathroom.

Read the rest of the article

Stories of the Holodomor have "either been ignored or minimalized" and the history of Ukrainian-Canadian internment camps will be addressed only by "a nondescript picture" rather than a full-fledged exhibit.

…

The subject of the Holodomor is relegated to a minor panel in a small obscure gallery near the museum’s public toilets.

"This is offensive, intolerable and jeopardizes the credibility of the museum to provide a balanced and objective perspective of key Canadian and global human rights stories," said the release from spokeswoman Darla Penner.

"The Holodomor is the lens through which the museum can teach the crimes of communism which were responsible for the subjugation, persecution and destruction of tens of millions of people."

Read the rest of the article

UCC President Paul Grod released details of the museum’s current plans in a video the group posted last month, here are some notes I made on it:

(At around 5:50) Grod says that WW1 Internment will not have a kiosk/exhibit, only a picture on the wall above Japanese Internment.

There will be a separate Holocaust room, which will include genocide discussion – the Lemkin model with background discussion, and the Holodomor will be discussed among other genocides.

The Holodomor will be featured in a separate "Hope and Hardwork" room, on the second floor, with "high-traffic location to the toilets" (at 9:00). The room will contain the 5 Canadian-recognized genocides, including the Holocaust (which has its own room as well).

The UCC has new demands: A dedicated kiosk for Internment, and to showcase the effect of War Measures Act for immigrants to Canada.

Watch the video

The UCC initially supported the museum 10 years ago, when promised to support prominent displays for the Holodomor and WW1 Internment. Last year though the museum decided not to have a permanent Holodomor display after all. The UCC, along with other groups like the UCCLA who started a postcard campaign, have urged Canadians to contact their MPs to support inclusiveness and no community be elevated above others.

Yesterday was the 199th anniversary of the father of Ukrainian language and identity, Taras Shevchenko – poet, author and artist. Today is the anniversary of his death in St. Petersburgh, and two months later was re-buried in his native Ukraine to fulfill his last wishes as memorialized in his testament:

My Testament (Zapovit)

When I am dead, bury me
In my beloved Ukraine,
My tomb upon a grave mound high
Amid the spreading plain,
So that the fields, the boundless steppes,
The Dnieper’s plunging shore
My eyes could see, my ears could hear
The mighty river roar.

When from Ukraine the Dnieper bears
Into the deep blue sea
The blood of foes … then will I leave
These hills and fertile fields –
I’ll leave them all and fly away
To the abode of God,
And then I’ll pray …. But till that day
I nothing know of God.

Oh bury me, then rise ye up
And break your heavy chains
And water with the tyrants’ blood
The freedom you have gained.
And in the great new family,
The family of the free,
With softly spoken, kindly word
Remember also me.

Taras Shevchenko
Pereyaslav, December 25, 1845
Translated by John Weir Toronto, 1961

[Shevchenko Museum]

A comprehensive list of his works are available at his online museum including his poetry, as well a detailed biography about his life, and his entire ‘Kobzar’ in Ukrainian. Also, North America’s only museum dedicated to him is in Toronto and open for visiting – which houses his now rescued statue

Ukrainian literature day

And while the Toronto reference library celebrated it last night with info sessions and exhibitions, it’s never too late to read up on your own. A while back we complied a good starter list to get you going, a good list of e-books, and books that have come out lately.

A new extensive body of works on the Holodomor is being launched in Toronto this Friday, bringing together key documents, eyewitness accounts, survivor testimonies and articles, many in English for the first time – and we’ve got a preview below!

When: Friday, March 8th, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.

Where: Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation, 2118A Bloor St. West, Toronto

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Dr. Bohdan Klid of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta discusses (in Ukrainian) “The Holodomor Reader Collection: How and Why It Came About” at the Toronto launch of The Holodomor Reader: A Sourcebook on the Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine.

Sponsored by the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Canada, Holodomor Research and Education Consortium (HREC), and Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre. Additional information about the Reader: http://www.ciuspress.com/catalogue/history/324/the-holodomor-reader.

Наукове Товариство ім. Шевченка в Канаді, Науково-Освітний Центр Вивчення Голодомору і Українсько-Канадський Дослідчо-Документаційний Центр запрошують на доповідь (українською мовою) д-ра Богдана Кліда, асистента директора Канадського Інституту Українських Студій при Альбертському Університеті в Едмонтоні на тему “ЗБІРНИК МАТЕРІЯЛІВ ‘THE HOLODOMOR READER’ : ЯК І ЧОМУ ВОНА ПОСТАЛА” і на презентацію недавно виданої книжки The Holodomor Reader: A Sourcebook on the Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine. Додаткова інформація про Reader: http://www.ciuspress.com/catalogue/history/324/the-holodomor-reader.

For those of you who can’t wait to pick up your copy, we have a sneak peek of the first chapter available to download for free!