Chair: Andrea Kopylech – University of Alberta
Rene Georgopalis – Archives Society of Alberta
Rene Georgopalis has been the Executive Director/Archives Advisor at the Archives Society of Alberta since 2012. She has worked with archives at Musée Héritage Museum in St. Albert, Alberta, a maternity home in Toronto as well as the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives in Toronto. She holds a BA Women’s Studies, 2002, and MA Classics, 2007 from the University of Alberta and MISt Archives and Records Management, 2010 from the University of Toronto. Her interests in archives include the topics of social justice and description.
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Archives Society of Alberta (ASA) offers a number of services to support archival institutions as well as archivists. These services include advising, grant programs and professional development opportunities. ASA is one of the Canadian councils for archives, and a similar council exists in each province and territory. This talk outlines the services ASA offers as well as the various councils in Canada.
Andrew Hladyshevsky – Shevchenko Foundation
Andrew Hladyshevsky, QC, focuses on providing corporate and commercial advice to Alberta businesses, whether operating locally, nationwide, or internationally. A partner of the law firm Dentons LLP, he is experienced in a variety of corporate transactions and acts as general counsel for companies listed on the Alberta, Vancouver, Toronto, US, and NASDAQ Stock Exchanges. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in January 2000. Andrew has lectured extensively, appeared on Global TV, CTV, and CBC Radio, and given interviews to print media. Recently Andrew was a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for his extensive pro bono work (2014), and he received the International Award of Merit from Ukraine (May 2008). He is the president of the Shevchenko Foundation.
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The Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko is a national, chartered philanthropic institution dedicated to the preservation, promotion and development of the Ukrainian Canadian cultural heritage and to the advancement of a flourishing Ukrainian community for the enrichment of Canada by providing leadership in building and sustaining a permanent endowment fund.
The Shevchenko Foundation provides grants to a variety of projects which in turn maintain and strengthen the character of our Canadian Ukrainian identity. The grants are provided within 4 pillars: Arts. Education, Community Development and Heritage. The Heritage grants program is intended to ensure that the history of the Ukrainian community is preserved and that the important sources of Ukrainian Canadian history and life are not lost to future generations.
The presentation will outline the support that the Foundation provides to individuals, institutions and organizations.
Lydia Migus – Ukrainian Canadian Congress
Lydia Migus is the chair of this UCC National Committee. She has been and continues to be active within the Ukrainian community, working with various organizations over the years (currently with Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League of Canada – Edmonton Eparchy, Friends of the Ukrainian Village Society, Friends of the Ukrainian Folklore Centre) and is has extensive experience working both in business and the non-profit sectors.
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At the UCC XXV Triennial Congress (Regina 2016) after a discussion about the loss of cultural and heritage artifacts and the lack of knowledge of what to do about the archives of our aging population, it was determined that a permanent committee be established to oversee the creation and continued operation of a consortium (cooperative network) of institutions with a Ukrainian and Ukrainian-Canadian themed mandate, with particular reference to museums, archives and research institutions, to ensure that the ethno-history of the Ukrainian-Canadian community is accurately and respectfully presented.
Reaching out to various community institutions is a daunting task, and having the forum of this conference is a unique way of informing and launching this Network. Discussion with participants about what is the Network trying to accomplish, what is its role and how to proceed to the betterment of the Ukrainian community and the preservation of our heritage with a united approach.
Maryna Chernyavska – Kule Folklore Centre
Maryna Chernyavska holds a position as the Folklore Archivist at the Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives, Kule Folklore Centre, University of Alberta, Canada. She also administers Alberta on Record – a provincial online database of the Archives Society of Alberta. Maryna holds a Master of Arts degree in Ukrainian Folklore and a Master of Library and Information Studies degree from the University of Alberta. Her research interests include: folklore archives, digital archives, traditional knowledge and memory keeping, postmodern archives, and ethnic cultural heritage. Maryna serves on the board of the International Council on Archives – Section on University and Research Institution Archives, and is a co-chair of the Working Group on Archives of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore.
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In October of 2017, the Kule Folklore Centre at the University of Alberta announced the launch of a program entitled “Sustainable Ukrainian Canadian Heritage”, SUCH-program for short. The program aims to address critical issues for Ukrainian Canadian communities related to preservation of and access to their historical and cultural heritage. The conference “Ukrainian Archival Collections in Canada: Preserving the Past, Building the Future” is the first event within the program. In the broader Canadian society, the value of archival heritage is recognized in certain ways, and manifested through various programs and government support, through the vibrant Canadian archival community, and multiple community archival initiatives at the local level. However, understanding of the value of archives and the role of the archivist, especially in the digital age, in Canadian society overall and in Ukrainian Canadian communities in particular, is often fragmented and episodic – it often lacks deep appreciation of the archival field, of the specific knowledge and skills of archivists, and most importantly, it often lacks vision.