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The Oral History of Ukrainian Canada (OHUC) is an oral history project that seeks to interview people who have contributed to the development and well being of Ukrainian Canada, Canada in general, and internationally.
The purpose of the project is to collect audio-visual interviews with persons who were, or are, active in the development and well being of a Ukrainian Canada. This includes persons born in Canada, as well as immigrants who came to Canada as children or adults from Europe, the USA and other countries.
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6,000 letters were collected by journalists Volodymyr Maniak and his wife Lidiia Kovalenko in response to their campaign launched in Kyiv in 1988 to collect witness accounts about the 1932 - 1933 Famine in Ukraine. 133 copies of the original documents are presently housed in the UCRDC Archives.
See the letters →Ukrainian by Choice explores the ethnicity of people whose one parent is Ukrainian, the other from a different ethnic background. These respondents all speak Ukrainian as a second or third language, are very proud of their Ukrainian heritage and are active in the Ukrainian community in varying degrees.
The project’s interviewer and researcher Ariadna Ochrymovych has said: “As young people some struggled with their identity, either because they felt they neglected their other ethnicity, or they were not totally accepted by the Ukrainian community or their Ukrainian parent was particularly over-bearing and forceful. Now as adults they serve and contribute to the Ukrainian community in many different ways, as musicians and performers, politicians, community leaders and organizers, and media promoters.”
Project coordinator Iroida Wynnyckyj states: “In addition UKRAINIAN BY CHOICE aims to record the respondent’s life story. This includes a description of his or her family, schools the respondent attended, work history and the like.”
The Ukrainian by Choice oral history project is funded by CFUS Curkowskyj Fund.
We are grateful to the Curkowskyj Fund for the gift of support which made this project possible.
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Following a successful and highly covered digital premiere November 6, 2020, the new documentary film "A Canadian War Story", produced by the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre and directed by Winnipeg filmmaker John Paskievich, is now available for purchase from UCRDC.
Please see an article by Alan Small of the Winnipeg Free Press about this new documentary film: "The battle to be 'real Canadians' – Documentary tells story of Ukrainian immigrants who put lives on the line for adopted homeland". The link is here.
Watch the trailer →The goal of this project is to identify and recognize Ukrainians who took great personal risks in hiding or otherwise helping Jews to survive during the horrific years of World War II. Recognizing the actions of such individuals would make salient their personal heroism, but also the existence of positive interaction and relations between Christian and Jews even during a period of deep crisis and pervasive violence.
This project builds on existing research and cases that have already been documented in Ukraine, at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and at the Shoah Foundation in Los Angeles, but also conducts research to identify cases not known or publicized to date. The UCRDC focuses on identifying and documenting cases that have a Canadian connection.
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