University of Alberta UKRAINIAN CANADIANS: THE

University of Alberta UKRAINIAN CANADIANS: THE MANIFESTATION OF CULTURAL IDENTITY THROUGH FOLK BALLADS by Victoria Shevchenko A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Ukrainian Folklore Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies ©Victoria Shevchenko Spring, 2012 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. This thesis is dedicated to all those brave men and women who found the courage to leave their native land. Even though they had to face all the hardships of an immigrant life and work hard to become established in a new country, they contributed much of their time and effort towards the development of a distinctive Ukrainian Canadian culture for future generations. ABSTRACT Large scale immigration of Ukrainians to Canada could be divided into four major waves according to the date of arrival. Each immigration wave cultivated a unique set of cultural practices, including folklore narratives, music and dance. A profound adjustment of the world-view occurs based on the realities faced, including unfamiliar conditions and authentic folklore changes. The study of a folk ballad is particularly interesting in this respect, as it has been retained as the most popular folklore genre within the Ukrainian community in Canada. Based on the series of interviews, carried out by Robert B. Klymasz in Saskatchewan and Manitoba in 1964-1965, as well as the fieldwork, done in Ukraine in 2009, and in Edmonton, Alberta in 2011-2012, this study discusses how the singing repertoire of Ukrainian Canadians changed after their immigration, and how there repertoires differed depending on the period in which they immigrated. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost I want to thank my research adviser Dr. Natalie Kononenko. It was a great honour for me to be a student of, and be mentored by, this prominent professor. I owe her my deepest gratitude for giving me a chance to study folklore at the University of Alberta, and for helping me to gain a degree in the specialty that I am most passionate about. Dr. Natalie Kononenko never gave up on me, even during tough times in the MA pursuit. She consistently allowed this thesis to be my own work, but steered me in the right direction whenever I needed it. I am grateful for her contribution of time and ideas to make my graduate school experience productive and stimulating. Financial assistance from the Peter and Doris Kule Center of Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore has allowed me to conduct the Master’s project and is greatly appreciated. I sincerely thank the reviewers of the thesis, Prof. Andriy Nahachewsky and Prof. John-Paul Himka, for their time, careful work, valuable comments and suggestions on the paper. I am also indebted to my professors Dr. Natalie Kononenko, Dr. Andriy Nahachewsky, Dr. Maryna Hrymych, Dr. Jean Debernardi and Dr. Oleh Ilnytzkyj for the knowledge that they gave me during those insightful courses that I took with them. This thesis would not have been possible without their generous support, constructive guidance and inspired suggestions on my work. I would like to acknowledge Jane Wilson, the Graduate Programs Administrator, who assisted me in many ways during the years of my graduate studies. I wish to express my warmest thanks to Ihor Broda who contributed immensely to my study of the third immigration wave. Mr. Broda suggested the names of prospective interviewees and provided me with their contact information. He also kindly agreed to review the third chapter and to share his expert knowledge in Ukrainian history and politics. The most sincere thanks and appreciation belong to my friend Evgeny Fialkov. He sacrificed much of his time for proofreading the draft of the first three chapters, and helped me in all possible ways during the preparation of this thesis. I devote my deepest gratitude to my parents for their unlimited love and support. They have been a source of good advice and encouragement throughout the years of my study. I also want to thank many of my friends who have helped me stay sane through these difficult years. Finally and most importantly, I am grateful to all my interviewees for sharing their memories, experiences and their favourite songs with me. By sparing their precious time, all the interviewees added their insight and shed more light on the subject of this dissertation. I am also extremely grateful for providing their feedback on this thesis, and for giving their valuable detailed comments and suggestions after reading the draft of this study. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER TITLE PAGE 1 Introduction 1 2 Singing repertoire of the First-Wave Ukrainian Immigrants to Canada 23 3 Singing repertoire of the Second-Wave Ukrainian Immigrants to 86 Canada 4 Singing Repertoire of the Third Wave of Immigration 127 5 Singing repertoire of the Fourth-Wave Ukrainian Immigrants to 213 Canada 6 Concluding Remarks 275 7 Bibliography 7.1 Print Sources 277 7.2 Internet Sources 281 7.1 Interviews 285 7.1 Filmography and Audiography 287 INTRODUCTION When I was growing up in Ukraine, I spent every summer with my grandparents. The whole family used to gather at the dinner table every evening, and as soon as everyone finished eating, my grandmother started singing her favourite Ukrainian ballads, and everybody else soon joined. I was not paying too much attention to the ballads at the time, but after my grandmother passed away, every time I heard a Ukrainian ballad, it evoked happy memories from my childhood. I eventually became more interested in Ukrainian ballads. It was one way to reconnect with my grandmother, whom I missed very much. Soon after I enrolled in the Foreign Languages department at the University in my hometown of Cherkasy, Ukraine, a professor in one of my classes told the students about the Ukrainian community in Canada. I was surprised to hear that Ukrainian Canadians continue to preserve their native customs and traditions, even though they live so far away from their homeland. As soon as I had an opportunity, I did not hesitate to come to Canada and see it for myself. When I arrived in Canada, Professor Natalie Kononenko introduced me to the Ukrainian ballad tradition in Canada, and provided me with a collection of 21 discs of Ukrainian Canadian ballads that were recorded by Robert Bohdan Klymasz in 1964-65. I was surprised to hear that those ballads were different from the ones that I remember hearing back home. That sparked my curiosity, and I wanted to find out why these 1 differences existed, and whether those differences were consistent in other Ukrainian Canadian ballads. This was how the idea behind my thesis came to be. As I was meeting more people in Edmonton, many of them mentioned they were at least partly of Ukrainian heritage, and celebrated their Ukrainian identity in various ways. They introduced me to the broader Ukrainian community in town, and this allowed me to pursue my research. It became evident that Ukrainian culture represents a vibrant segment of Canada’s multi-cultural society. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Ukrainian immigrants began to develop the cultural framework that has evolved into one of the most recognizable subcultures in Canada. Each generation of settlers had much to contribute to the growth of Ukrainian Canadian culture in its own way, and together these contributions had a significant effect on the development of a distinct Ukrainian identity in Canada. Even though immigration of Ukrainians to Canada can be traced back to over a century ago, it was not continuous. There were many factors that prevented any immigration or settlement for years at a time, including the First and the Second World Wars, as well as the Cold War era that saw the establishment of the Iron Curtain in Soviet- controlled territories. Therefore, the large scale immigration of Ukrainians to Canada could be divided into four major waves. The first wave of immigration took place between 1891 and 1914 and was interrupted by the First World War. After the end of the war, in 1922, Ukrainian immigration to Canada re-emerged in the second wave, which lasted until 2 the eve of the Second World War in 1939. The representatives of the third wave were settling in Canada in the post-war period from 1946 until 1961. The fourth wave of immigration began in 1991after the breakup of the Soviet Union, and continues to the present day. It could be argued that the different experiences and conditions encountered by each wave of immigration before and after settling in Canada influenced the cultural practices of these immigrants as they relate to folklore narratives, music and dance. By delving into the immigrant singing tradition, one could see the difference between the four waves. Folk ballads continue to be performed among immigrants, and the interviews conducted during this study support the popularity of this genre within the Ukrainian community in Canada. The dominance of certain ballad topics that were identified during the participant interviews, reflected the likes and dislikes, concerns, attitudes, interests and experiences of the performers of each wave.

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