Keeping the Cultural Fires Burning

By Walter Kish

I have been involved with Ukrainian organizations here in Canada for most of my life.  “Involved” actually is probably a little too imprecise for my relationship with the organized Ukrainian community.  After all, thousands and tens of thousands of Ukrainian Canadians are “involved” as members of a Ukrainian church, club, association, dancing group, choir or other affinity group whose prime distinction is that it is Ukrainian in terms of its activities or cultural perspective.

For the most part, the vast majority of these people are whom what I would call consumers of Ukrainian culture.  They take advantage of the offerings of the various Ukrainian organizations that produce a broad spectrum of Ukrainian oriented activities, products and services.  The actual work involved in keeping the metaphorical cultural fires burning however, is done by a small handful of dedicated and motivated people who sacrifice much time, energy and lost personal opportunity to ensure that Ukrainian culture and identity remains alive and relevant within the Canadian environment.

I do not think that I would be exaggerating things by saying that almost all that passes for Ukrainian organizational and cultural life in Canada is the work of, at most, a couple of hundred individuals.  These are the leaders and organizers, the teachers, choreographers, choir directors, priests and activist volunteers that are behind anything of significance that happens in the Ukrainian community.  In any given Canadian town or city, you will find that it is invariably the same handful of people that are behind all the significant events and organizational efforts.  It only takes a handful of dedicated individuals to make for a vibrant Ukrainian community.  By contrast, I know of many areas across Canada where there are significant populations of Ukrainian descent, and where because of the absence of the spark created by such leading individuals, there is no Ukrainian cultural life or presence to speak of.

I have often pondered what is it that drives such individuals to do what they do.  The rewards, aside from the personal self-satisfaction and some measure of ego gratification, are few.  The cost in terms of time, money and foregoing of personal priorities is great.  Where does the dedication and motivation come from?  Although there are always exceptions, there seems to be little correlation to environmental or family factors.  I have often observed how the offspring of many of the most activist Ukrainians seldom follow in their parents’ footsteps, while some of the strongest leaders of  the Ukrainian community in Canada had parents or came from families who were not particularly strongly “Ukrainian”.

I only have to look at my own siblings as a baseline to confirm this.  Although my brother and my sister both had essentially the same upbringing as I did, all three of us followed a very different path in terms of our involvement with the Ukrainian community once we reached adulthood.  I became and remain very involved with the Ukrainian “cause” both here in Canada as well as in our homeland, devoting a significant proportion of my discretionary time to preserving and developing Ukrainian culture and identity.  For me, it is one of the main priorities in life. My older brother by contrast, was for most of his life essentially assimilated into the Canadian melting pot with little contact with the Ukrainian community.  Although he has recently become more interested in his Ukrainian roots, his priorities in terms of what is important in one’s life are significantly different than mine.

My younger artistic sister occupies a sort of middle ground, with her cultural self-awareness being somewhere between mine and my brother’s.  She has been active with the Ukrainian church where she lives, takes a professional interest in Ukrainian art and preserves certain Ukrainian traditions within the family home environment, though she has never been particularly active with any Ukrainian organization. 

None of this is meant to be in any sense judgemental – we all choose our own particular paths in life and fashion our priorities accordingly.  How much of this is determined environmentally and how much genetically is subject to scientific debate, however I have a strong bias in thinking that some individuals are born with a strong “culture” gene which drives them to devote their lives towards cultural pursuits. 

A successful society requires a proper balance of individual skills – organizational, military, leadership, creative and cultural.  The more scientifically inclined would say that evolution has through the eons created the balance that we have now.  The more religiously inclined believe that God has provided us with the right mix of individual talents to build a viable and successful civilization.  Few would argue that the cultural aspects of life play a fundamental role in our striving for peace, prosperity and happiness.

My cousin Hryts once said that culture is what enriches our lives when we have neither the money nor the power to do so in other ways.  In my mind, when you look at the history of Mankind, money and power are transient and, in the long run, inconsequential.  The only thing of lasting value is culture.  I suppose that is why I do what I do.