BALTIC HERITAGE NETWORK Newsletter no. 1 (22) 2018 issn: 228-3390 In this issue: • The Topic of Foods of Estonians Abroad in the Estonian National Museum Yearbook • Paul Lillakas Gave an Exciting Lecture on Life as a Food Editor • New Book: “Encounters in Siberia” • Exhibition “Diplomacy of Lithuanian Exiles in the Fight for Freedom” • “Keys” series broadcasts episode on Baltic University • Eerik Purje’s Gift to Estonia “Aja puudutus” • A Generous Donation • Estonian Music Week in Toronto to celebrate Estonia 100 BaltHerNet youth seminar in Kaunas in October 2010. Lithuanian Heritage Abroad: Editor-in-Chief: Piret Noorhani Editor: Kristina Lupp Challenges and Achievements Designer: Kristina Lupp A round table discussion about Lithuanian heritage outside Lithuania The Baltic Heritage Newsletter is organized by the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania on distributed quarterly, on-line. The next deadline for submissions is 15 April January 26, 2018, was a good opportunity to assess not only the situation of 2018. Please send all related enquiries the Lithuanian heritage abroad and to identify the challenges and problems, and submissions to Piret Noorhani: but also to talk about the achievements and the future work. [email protected] Augustinas Žemaitis, the leader of the project “Destination – America,” started The Non-Profit Association Baltic Heritage Network was founded in Tartu on January the event. He told about a 16-day trip to the United States that he took last 11, 2008. NPA BaltHerNet was established fall visiting Lithuanian places, recording material heritage and listening to to foster cooperation between national and the stories of local people of Lithuanian descent. Žemaitis, who has been private archives, museums, libraries, and interested in Lithuanian heritage outside Lithuania for five years, is convinced institutions of research, public associations that his project is important not only to Lithuanians in the US, but also and organizations collecting and studying the cultural heritage of the Baltic diaspora. Lithuania. In his opinion, it is necessary to find new ways of preserving the It aims to facilitate the preservation and Lithuanian heritage abroad. He suggested volunteering or tourism as good research of the historically valuable cultural tools to do it. property of the Baltic diaspora, as well as to ensure accessibility of these materials to Ramojus Kraujelis, the Chief Archivist of Lithuania, noted that today, the public. unfortunately, there are no resources to describe Lithuanian heritage abroad. NPA BaltHerNet is also committed to He commended the private initiative “Destination – America” and proposed the organising of conferences, seminars to continue this project covering not only US but other countries which also and workshops, and to developing and have many objects of Lithuanian material culture. administrating the electronic information website Baltic Heritage Network, a Despite the lack of financial and human resources in Lithuania and abroad, multilingual electronic gateway for a number of projects have already been accomplished in this area. In 2010- information on the cultural heritage of the 2011, a joint plan was created with Lithuanians living abroad regarding Baltic diaspora. the Lithuanian archives in emigration. Its goal is to identify and describe www.balther.net Lithuanian heritage in the US, Australia and other countries. Each year, at ISSN 2228-3390 2018 NO . 1 (22) Baltic heritage network 2 immediately start digitizing written and audio-visual heritage and make it accessible online for everyone. The participants acknowledged the necessity of a private initiative in preserving Lithuanian heritage abroad. As one participant noted, personal interest runs much further and deeper than a paid one, and the project “Destination – America” is a The participants of the discussion. great proof of it. Photo: National Library of Lithuania least one and usually two groups The Topic of Foods of Lithuania’s archivists travel to of Estonians Abroad different places to identify and in the Estonian describe Lithuanian heritage. Mr. National Museum Kraujelis also pointed a new trend, Yearbook interested listeners at Tartu College. according to him, more and more Paul is an award-winning Canadian- of the written cultural heritage The most recent issue of the Estonian Estonian chef, who won Chopped accumulated in the emigration finds National Museum Yearbook (nr. Canada in 2014 and has since worked its new home in Lithuania. Only 60, 2017) focuses on Estonian food in a number of interesting places. recently, Lithuania has received a heritage. Two out of five articles One such place, was Canadian Living few hundreds of boxes with such discuss the food culture of Estonians where he was the food editor for just material from Australia. Brazil is who have built new homes far from over a year. At the lecture he gave the also expecting the archivists from their homeland. Aivar Jürgenson’s audience a taste of “Secrets From the Lithuania. article “On Estonian Food Culture Test Kitchen: A Month in the Life A Lithuanian American Arvydas Abroad” focuses on the food of a Food Editor.” The lecture was Reneckis, who is currently filming traditions of Estonians in Siberia, followed by a question-answer period a documentary about the history the far east of Russia, Caucasus, and a chance to discuss the lecture of Lithuanians in the US and who and South America (Argentina and over coffee. in the discussion represented the Brazil). Jürgenson discusses how The Presentation of Lithuanian Research and Studies these Estonians adapted to their Center (Chicago, USA), said that the new circumstances, which inevitably “The Red Flood” Center is one of the most important changed their diets. Riina Reinvelt’s The Martynas Mažvydas National Lithuanian cultural institutions article “Our Food and Their Food: Library of Lithuania together with the in North America. “If we move Food Experiences of 1944 Refugees publishing house “Briedis” presented the entire heritage accumulated According to ERM Resources” based a book “The Red Flood” by Ignas for several decades to Lithuania, on surveys and memories collected Šeinius (1889-1959), a Lithuanian we will wipe out ourselves,” Mr. at the museum, analyses the initial diplomat to Sweden and other Reneckis said. Instead of rushing, he experiences refugees had with foreign Scandinavian countries, on January suggested to start with one precedent flavours in their first stopping points 25, 2018. The book “Den röda floden” which would serve as an example in Sweden and Germany, as well as first published in Stockholm, Sweden for future joint projects. He had in their final countries of residence in 1940 is author’s authentic account already started negotiations with the in Canada, Australia, and the USA. about the events that took place in Lithuanian Central State Archives While the first generation of refugees Lithuania in 1940. typically continued eating Estonian about the digitization of audio and The book opens a window to one of video archives held at the Lithuanian foods, for the generations born Research and Studies Center. abroad, typical everyday Estonian foods were not lost, but became foods Ramūnas Kondratas, the director of served primarily at special events. the Vilnius University Museum, did not hide the fact that the Lithuanian Paul Lillakas Gave an heritage abroad (in particular, in the Exciting Lecture on United States) is undergoing difficult Life as a Food Editor times, for example, there is a huge problem of where to store archives or On February 7, Paul Lillkas gave an unfit storage conditions. According to exciting and long awaited lecture on Mr. Kondratas, it is very important to life as a food editor to a hall full of 2018 NO . 1 (22) Baltic heritage network 3 the most tragic periods in Lithuanian of the most systematic ones: we decade of the 20th century, the history, the Soviet occupation of have tried to locate all the possible interest of the Estonian general public the country. Šeinius describes how Estonian communities still existing in towards Estonians living in Siberia the Soviets destroyed country’s Siberia and record their folklore and was insignificant. The observations independence, trampled nation’s significant recollections. of folklorists about Siberia during patriotism, forcefully introduced As native Estonians travelling in this period are among the very few Soviet way of life; how they Sovietized Russia in the 1990s we could not help and should capture wider general country’s economy and expropriated but witness the insecurities brought interest for this reason only. The private business. Once the Iron on by the dramatic changes in the book shed light on the customs Curtain descended on Lithuania, lives of Siberia’s Estonians stemming and traditions of Estonians living a wave of surveillance, arrests and in a multicultural environment, the crackdowns began. “The Red Flood” from the collapse of the Soviet Union, people’s use of language, everyday life serves as an eloquent testimony of the changing political situation and in the villages, highlight changes that those terrible events. economic recession. have occurred both in Siberia and In 1952, the memoir was translated Estonians living in Siberia felt cut the Estonian Folklore Archives (e.g., into Lithuanian and published in off from their relatives in homeland, in the use of recording technology) the United States. It was republished especially after the visa regime was in the