“JÄÄ SEISMA SA, MU EESTIMAA!”: VOICES OF NATIONALISM AND CULTURAL CONTINUITY IN THE TORONTO ESTONIAN GIRL GUIDES, 1949-1972 KRISTI KUKK SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY NIPISSING UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES NORTH BAY, ONTARIO © Kristi Kukk August 2013 Abstract “‘Jää seisma sa, mu Eestimaa!’: Voices of Nationalism and Cultural Continuity in the Toronto Estonian Girl Guides, 1949-1972”1 examines the stories of ten Estonian women in Canada who participated in the Toronto Estonian Girl Guides between 1949 and 1972. Through their individual oral histories as well as songs, material culture, and yearbooks from the organization, this master’s research paper explores the ways in which the Toronto Estonian Girl Guides functioned as a source of cultural continuity for the Estonian community in Toronto after the Second World War, demonstrating that processes of assimilation are often not as straightforward as traditionally perceived in the historiography. 1 “Jää seisma sa, mu Eestimaa!” (Stay standing, my Estonia) is a lyric from: K Türnpu and P. Grünfeldt. “Gaidide Hümn,” in Mälestusi Gaidirajalt: Eesti Gaidide Liit, ed. Siiri Puust (Toronto: Oma Press Limited, 1988), 4. iv Acknowledgements I would first like to thank the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program, Nipissing University, and the Estonian Foundation of Canada for funding this research project. I would also like to acknowledge the various professors, colleagues, and family members who have shaped this project and have helped me throughout my university career. I would first like to thank my committee: Katrina Srigley, Anne Clendinning, and Lindsay McMaster, for their thoughtful feedback and constructive criticism of my MRP. Particularly, I’d like to thank my supervisor Katrina Srigley, who inspired my interest in oral history and devoted much of her time to providing me support and assistance to complete this MRP to its fullest potential. I’d also like to thank professors for all their guidance and support they have provided over the last five years at Nipissing University: Stephen Connor, Anne Clendinning, and Hilary Earl. From this group I’d especially like to thank Stephen Connor for pushing me to think outside of the box, for allowing me to explore my Estonian heritage and history in many of his classes, and ultimately, for motivating me to pursue graduate school in an area of inquiry that best suited me. I’d also like to acknowledge my fellow colleagues who have contributed to this program, from various backgrounds and fields, to provide a more enriched learning experience. This MRP could not have been completed without the solidarity and support from this group. Also, I’d like to thank my family: my parents, Hans and Leili Kukk, my aunt Silvia Hermann, my grandparents Elmar and Laine Hermann, Hans and Evi Kukk, as well as my great-aunt Helju Kivioja. All of their stories, including their journeys from Estonia and their livelihoods in Canada as either first generation or second generation Estonians, have inspired not only this research project but also my lifelong passion for history. Lastly, I’d like to acknowledge the ten women I interviewed for this project. These women most generously welcomed me into their homes and took the time to share their stories v of the Toronto Estonian Girl Guides with me. For their generosity and in honour of their participation in the organization, I dedicate this research paper to them. vi Table of Contents Pages Abstract iv Acknowledgements v Table of Contents vii List of Figures viii List of Appendices ix Introduction 1 Historiography 4 Methodology 12 Context: Departure from Estonia 15 Immigration after Estonia 18 Estonians in Toronto 19 Creating the Toronto Estonian Girl Guides 21 Guiding & Nationalism: The Cold War and a Community in Exile 23 Remaining Distinctively Estonian 32 Kotkajärve 39 The Estonian World Festival in Toronto, 1972 42 Guiding & Gender: “The Estonian Woman” 46 Conclusion: Assimilation or Cultural Continuity? 51 Bibliography 71 vii List of Figures Pages Figure 1: Traditional Estonian Embroidery Motifs and Patterns from the Toronto 56 Estonian Girl Guides Leader Instruction Handbook Figure 2: Instructions on how to use an Estonian Traditional Spinning Wheel 56 from the Toronto Estonian Girl Guides Leader Instruction Handbook Figure 3: Diagram of the Toronto Estonian Girl Guide Uniform from the Leader 57 Instruction Handbook Figure 4: “Avamine esimesel aastakoosolekul Kanada, Torontos 1953” (“Opening 57 the first meeting of the year in Canada, Toronto 1953”) Figure 5: Canadian Girl Guide Uniforms, circa 1950s 58 Figure 6: “Gaidide Hümn” (“Girl Guide Anthem”) 58 Figure 7: The Estonian Diaspora Gathering at Nathan Philips Square for the 59 Estonian World Festival in 1972 Figure 8: Nathan Philips Square During the Estonian World Festival in 1972 59 Figure 9: March down Yonge Street towards Nathan Philips Square. 60 Figure 10: The Toronto Estonian Girl Guides March to Nathan Philips Square 60 During the Estonian World Festival in Toronto, 1972 Figure 11: The Toronto Estonian Boy Scouts and Girl Guides at Nathan Philips 61 Square during the Estonian World Festival in Toronto, 1972 Figure 12: Kotkajärve Maailmalaager during the Estonian World Festival in 1972 61 Figure 13: “‘Kotkajärve’ Maailmalaagri Laul.” (“‘Kotkajärve’ World Camp Song”) 62 Figure 14: “Külalised ‘Alatskivi’ õuel. ‘Põhjala,’ 1954,” (“Visitors to the ‘Alatskivi’ yard 63 ‘Põhjala,’ [camp] 1954”) Figure 15: “Esimene iseseisev hellakeste laager Eesti gaidluse ajaloos—‘Tibutara’ Jõekäärul, 63 1953,” (“The first independent Estonian Brownie Camp in Guiding History”) viii List of Appendices Pages Appendix A: Participant Information Letter and Consent for Identified Participants 64 Appendix B: Interview Questions: First Generation Toronto Estonian Girl Guides 67 Appendix C: Interview Questions: Second Generation Toronto Estonian Girl Guides 69 ix 1 Introduction On 13 October 2012, I sat with Hilja Kuutma in her apartment in Toronto. Sitting across from me at the dinning table, with a warm smile, she transported me to a completely different world. It was 13 December, 1948. Kuutma, then twelve years old, had just arrived in Halifax, Canada with her two parents after enduring a strenuous, one-month journey across the Atlantic on the S.S. Walnut. She explained that she was one of three-hundred and fifty-five Estonian DPs who had stowed away. They did not have entry visas. Like so many other refugees in 1948, they had no home to return to in Europe. Luckily for Kuutma and her fellow Estonian passengers, Canadian border officials admitted them to the country. They were assimilable as white, Christian anti-communists.2 Despite these characteristics and the assimilative efforts of the Canadian government, many Estonians retained their heritage after years in Canada. For the first couple of years, life in Canada was challenging for Kuutma. Canada presented “a completely foreign future. We didn’t know what to expect, and what was here, and where [we] would be going, and everything was sort of up in the air.”3 This confusion was reinforced after she moved with her parents from Halifax to Toronto in 1948 and started to attend school. With little understanding of English this transition was especially difficult. “You didn’t understand everything and you couldn’t express yourself.”4 Despite this reality, the growing Estonian immigrant community in Toronto provided her with an outlet for expression. In the late 1940s and 1950s, the Estonian community in Toronto developed Estonian-specific sport clubs, social organizations and committees, newspapers, and churches to practice and maintain Estonian culture in Canada. Like many other young Estonian women in her community, Kuutma developed an interest in the Toronto Estonian Girl Guides. With seven 2 Hilja Kuutma, interview, Toronto, Ontario, 13 October 2012. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 2 other Estonian immigrant girls, around the same age as Kuutma, they formed the first Toronto Estonian Girl Guides patrol in May, 1949. This organization was the “central focus” of her life during these years in Toronto. On weeknights and weekends she would attend meetings, participate in Estonian cultural activities, and during the summer, attend camp with other Estonian immigrant girls of the same age.5 When Kuutma finished explaining this particular story, I was brought back to the context of the interview. Since those formative years, Kuutma has participated in the Toronto Estonian Girl Guides in various capacities: patrol leader, Brownie leader, assistant group leader and later head of the Põhjala Tütred, and the Estonian Girl Guide’s executive in Canada. She has also acted as the Estonian Chief Guide-in-Exile, and is currently the honourary Vanem, or elder.6 Throughout her life and transition from Estonian immigrant to Estonian-Canadian citizen, the Toronto Estonian Girl Guides have played an important role in her life. When asked about what it meant to be a Toronto Estonian Girl Guide, Kuutma responded, “it gave me an opportunity to sort of develop myself,” and “made me belong to my Estonian roots.”7 While giving her a context in which to develop as a young woman, much like the Canadian Girl Guides, the organization also allowed her to express, engage in, and maintain her Estonian identity. In this Kuutma was not alone. All of the Toronto Estonian Girl Guides interviewed for this study described the organization through ways in which it shaped their immigration experiences and, more particularly, preserved their own Estonian identities. Many other members including Helju Kivioja, Siiri Lepp, and Ene Lüdig explained their immigration and adjustment to Canada through the organization’s predominant focus on Estonian language, culture, and history. Other members including Helle-Mai Reece-Saluments, Anne Agur, Ingrid 5 Kuutma, interview. 6 Vanem is Estonian for elder. 7 Kuutma, interview. 3 Kutt, Urve Tamberg, Silvia Hermann, and Reet Marley described their lives in Canada, as second-generation Estonians, through the organization’s focus on cultural continuity.