Can we do Better?: Erasure and Myths of Ukrainian-Indigenous Relations in Canada with Leah Hrycun
Promoted by Ukrainian Museum of Canada, Ontario Branch
Event Description
The Ukrainian Museum of Canada, Ontario Branch and Native Canadian Centre of Toronto present a lecture series in connection with their current exhibition “The Spirit of Beads: Sharing our Stories”
All lectures will be presented virtually via Zoom. Tickets are $10 per lecture. For more information and registration please visit https://www.umcontario.com/speakerseries-spirit-of-beads-1
Thurs. April 15 2021
7pm
Lecturer: Leah Hrycun
Title: Can we do Better?: Erasure and Myths of Ukrainian-Indigenous Relations in Canada
Description: Ukrainian immigrants have made Canada their home since 1891 and many relied on the kindness of the Indigenous peoples they encountered to make it through their first winter and beyond. But somehow, in making Canada our home, we erased the Indigenous peoples whose knowledge and lands were integral to our ancestors’ survival and success from our stories. This presentation will share some of the stories of Ukrainians and Indigenous people that have been recovered and seeks to answer the question, can we do better when we tell our stories of these lands?
Bio: Leah Hrycun is a PhD Student who has spent most of her life in Amiskwaciwâskahikan (amisk-wa-chi-was-ga-hi-gan), also known as Edmonton. She is a third generation Ukrainian Canadian who also shares German and Jewish ancestry. Her research interests include Métis histories, material culture, repatriation, land settlement and dispossession, settler-colonialism, and white settler supremacy on the prairies. Her current research seeks to recover narratives of Indigenous- Ukrainian relations in east central Alberta in the hope that it will open dialogues surrounding the shared histories of these lands and address why so few historians consider the presence of Indigenous peoples and land in Ukrainian Canadian histories. By recovering these histories and deconstructing how and why Ukrainian settlers came to support Canadian settler-colonialism, she hopes to redresses Indigenous erasure in Ukrainian settler histories and ultimately provide space for Ukrainian Canadians to move toward being in good relation with the Cree, Nakota, and Métis people who also call these lands home.
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