2015-08-21
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Over 1 million Ukrainians live in Canada. Desperate needs and life conditions in their Homeland made them look for their happiness over oceans and seas.
Ivan Pylypiv and Vasyl Eleniak are considered to be trailblazers of Ukrainian immigration. They arrived in Canada on the ship “Oregon” in September 1891. Both were 33 years of age when they came there from the Carpathian village of Nebyliv. In the next 25 years 250.000 of their countrymen followed them. Today their children live in peace, liberty and prosperity.
In 1991 a centenary of Ukrainian immigration to Canada was celebrated. Ramon John Hnatyshyn, Governor-general of Canada, a Ukrainian by birth from Chernivtsi, said in his speech: ’Ukrainians were indispensable to the economic growth of Canada!’
Most of the overseas Ukrainians no longer speak Ukrainian, but they still warship in their own churches and are aware of their origin. They are believed to be thrifty, enterprising, hardworking and conscientious. They are quick to attain a decent standard of living.
Ukrainian writing in Canada began in the first major wave of Ukrainians.
The first period of Ukrainian writing, 1897-1920 was permeated with folklore.
In the second period, 1920-50, the Ukrainian writing in Canada broadened thematically and became more artistic. In prose fiction, Illia Kyriak /Ellias Kiriak/ distinguished himself with his realistic trilogy ‘Syny Zemli’. It was translated and abridged as ‘Sons of the Soil’ in 1959. The trilogy shows a panorama of the life of settlers on the prairies.
The third period opened with the arrival of immigrants after WWII. In contrast to a previous realism, there appeared various literary trends and styles, including modernism.
Since the 1960 there has been a revival in Ukrainian literature in Canada.
Ukrainian authors in Canada formed their own literary society, which has published 8 volumes of the almanac ‘Slovo’ /1970-87/ and ‘Antolohiia ukrainskoi poezii v Kanadi, 1889-1973‘ in 1975.
The Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in Canada and the Shevchenko Scientific society have regularly published their proceedings and other scholarly books.
Despite the great variety of themes and significant ideas in Ukrainian writing, there are only some 15 Ukrainian Canadian authors whose artistic accomplishments place their literature on a level equal to that in Ukraine or higher.
