A Rant on Being Ukrainian

By Volodymyr Kish

Before you proceed to reading this column any further, be forewarned that below, rather than one of my usual analytical dissections of some contemporary Ukrainian issue, you will find a shameless rant, based on emotion, disappointment, frustration, anger, bias and impractical idealism. From time to time, virtual “psychological” steam builds up pressure inside my mind until it “blows” and a rant ensues. So, if you are averse or sensitive to criticism of your lukewarm commitment to things Ukrainian, stop reading this now and go turn on some mindless program on TV. I am in one of my, as my younger daughter calls it, “Captain Ukraine” moods.

The generator of all this “steam” this time is the harsh reality in modern day Canada that makes up the vast majority of Ukrainian Canadians who couldn’t give a rat’s zadok about whether Ukrainian identity and culture continues to exist in this country. The impressive achievements of our immigrant forbearers are crumbling away into oblivion, and most of their descendants couldn’t care less. Our ancestors here built hundreds if not thousands of churches, halls, schools and cultural centres. They organized large numbers of choirs, dance groups, drama clubs, organizations and cooperatives. They published countless newspapers, books, journals and other publications. They raised millions upon millions of dollars to support the Ukrainian cause both in Canada and in Ukraine.

So what do most of their children and grandchildren think about all that? Why, mostly nothing, nothing at all! They are too busy satisfying their cravings for a prestigious ego-boosting job, bigger house, a more expensive car, a European cruise, a golf club membership and a nice wine cellar. They are too busy living and enjoying the successful dream that their immigrant parents sacrificed so much to provide them. Regrettably, the immigrant parents never dreamed that in doing so, their children would turn their backs on the culture and history that produced them.

Those younger generations, traded in their parents’ culture for the modern, consumerist, “hip” and mostly passive mass culture of North America. They appropriated as their own the seductive cornucopia of hard driving rock music, Hollywood escapism, mass television, commercial sports, video games, conspicuous consumption and a disdain for things historical, classical or folkloric. They live for the present and think little if anything at all of the historical forces and events that created them. They would think nothing of spending a couple of hundred dollars for a night out on the town, or to buy the latest high-tech toy, but ask them for a small contribution to pay for some Ukrainian cultural endeavour or to cover the annual dues to a Ukrainian organization, and they do Scrooge proud.

Too many Ukrainian Canadians have too little respect for their Ukrainian roots. Every one of us is the sum of not only our own experiences, but to some measure, our parents’ experiences, their parents’ experiences, and so on into the distant mists of history. To ignore that legacy of acquired experience as embodied in the culture of our ethnos is to reject a vital piece of what makes us who we are. It is to reject our parents’ and ancestors’ values and their life’s worth.

Too many Ukrainian Canadians have too easily accepted the propaganda of our historical enemies and the attitudes of Western European culture that have sought to propagate the myth that Ukrainian art, culture, language, music, philosophy, politics and other contributions to civilization have somehow been inferior and less worthy than those of other nations or ethnic groups. Anyone who undertakes a serious study of Ukraine’s legacy in these fields invariably discovers the opposite.

There is an incredible richness, variety and beauty to be found when we explore our roots. Look beyond the varenyky and the hopak, the clichs and the over-used and over-propagandized standard portrayals of who we are and were, and you will discover a vibrant and immensely interesting history embroidered with aesthetic and artistic treasures that will amaze you.

By all means, be what you want to be in life, but let the “being” include being Ukrainian.

You don’t need to be fanatic about it, you don’t need to be a “Captain Ukraine”, but take the trouble to find that magic trove of riches that is the legacy of a thousand years of Ukrainian civilization, and make time to enjoy it and appreciate it together with the Canadian side of your identity.