A MacEwan and University of Alberta initiative is seeking to explore the similarities between two seemingly different cultures within the province: Ukrainian settlers and Indigenous Albertans.
“The goal of this event was to get Indigenous and Ukrainian people into a safe space to learn from each other by exploring shared and unshared stories and continue developing relationships,” says Larisa Hayduk, director of MacEwan’s Ukrainian Resource and Development Centre (URDC). “We are committed to the work of reconciliation and decolonization by untangling the difficult histories. We are passionate about figuring out how to move forward collaboratively with trust, and how we can live well together.”
URDC and kihêw waciston partnered with the Kule Folklore Centre at the University of Alberta, the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village and Métis Crossing to put on a weekend-long event called Visiting Neighbours: Learning from the Land.
Twenty-six people – including organizers and MacEwan staff, faculty and students – were able to attend the two-day event, immersing themselves in both Ukrainian and Métis culture and traditions. Attendees were previously involved in other events through the Indigenous-Ukrainian Relationship Building Initiative, an initiative between URDC and the Kule Folklore Centre that has been operating for several years.
The initiative has produced events in the past, but Visiting Neighbours was the first of such a large scale and timeline. Hayduk explains that the decision to host the event this year was one she put a lot of consideration into. “Though the war is raging, life must go on in a lot of ways. And this event is really about humanity.”
On August 26, the group travelled from Edmonton to the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, where they spent the morning learning about early Ukrainian settlers in Alberta. They made and ate fresh perogies (known in Ukrainian as varenyky) for lunch, before moving on to Métis Crossing for the rest of the weekend. There, they learned about Alberta Métis populations and participated in canoeing, beading, live music and dancing, medicine gathering, and circle discussions.
“When you are in nature with the Cree and Métis Elders, and see how they pick medicine and how they talk about nature, it's a completely different experience than just speaking about it,” says Polina Budyanska, administrative assistant for URDC.
A major theme of the event was displacement, which is something that both the Métis and Ukrainian communities have dealt with extensively historically, and is an ongoing issue for many Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war. Dr. Gayana Yüksel, an Indigenous Crimean Tatar and journalism professor visiting from Volodymyr Vernadsky Taurida National University in Kyiv, Ukraine, was also on site to discuss her perspective on Ukrainian displacement due to Russian invasions.
Hayduk is following up with attendees about their experiences, interviewing them about what they took from the event. She and Maryna Chernyavska, researcher for the Kule Folklore Centre, will take the information gathered and use it to shape the future of the Indigenous-Ukrainian Relationship Building Initiative.
“Part of this research is based on circles and conversations where new knowledge is generated,” says Hayduk. “We want to create a roadmap of where we would go from here, and the major topics that came from that were displacement of communities and preservation of language and culture.”
Shelby LaFramboise, assistant professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Communications and cross-appointment with kihêw waciston, found evidence of that displacement in the way both Ukrainians and Métis people treat plants and herbs. “They had herbs hanging from the one house, and I got to understand how they cooked traditionally. It’s the ability to survive as settlers and how, even though it's over 100 years ago, people found community in another country,” she says. “I think it's the same thing with Métis Crossing – the idea of finding community amid displacement.”
Displacement wasn’t the only thing attendees found they had in common, though. LaFramboise noted that the idea of gifting is a common thread between both communities. She received a pennant from Dr. Yüksel with a symbol for justice, and Laframboise herself gave each attendant a beaded, floral kokum scarf.
“I think the power of gifting and the power of the symbolism inside of the patterns of these items is really special,” says LaFramboise.
URDC and kihêw waciston are hoping to continue to work together on more events for the Indigenous-Ukrainian Relationship Building Initiative in the future, taking knowledge from Hayduk’s research to shape their goals.
“We have worked very closely with kihêw waciston in the past, specifically on the university's Interdisciplinary Dialogue Project since 2018, so it was important for us to invite them to partner for this special event,” says Hayduk. “We know that we cannot truly learn about Indigenous peoples without including them in the conversation.”