🧵1. Who am I? I am Ukrainian Canadian. I have Scottish hair from my mum and high cheekbones from my Tato. My family's history is one of oppression--from the Tsar to Soviets, Nazis and Fascist Russia today.
2. My father just sent me the letters that were saved from when his father and their family were ripped from their home in Ivanivka and shipped to northern Siberia - to a work camp, to die.
3. My great Uncle Vasyl Krawvchenko wrote a poem for his mother on the date of that eviction: March 5 1930. This is for her memory.
4. “Your mother is too strong for tears. When evicted she sat down on the cart with the children and leaving the yard didn’t shed a tear.” As told by Aunt Hanna.
5. Let them, cursed ones, take our home,
Let them take all the wealth,
In Your eyes, oh dear Mother,
They will not see tears.
Let them take all the wealth,
In Your eyes, oh dear Mother,
They will not see tears.
6. You hold yourself strong, sitting in the cart,
While Your soul aches, trembling:
Whatever is to come - doesn’t matter,
Since we were destined long ago
While Your soul aches, trembling:
Whatever is to come - doesn’t matter,
Since we were destined long ago
7. Around You children, small, like
Nestlings, sit snuggling.
Why did evil people
Destroy their nest so early?
Nestlings, sit snuggling.
Why did evil people
Destroy their nest so early?
8. Where will the nestling go?
What does fate hold for them?
Farewell dear home,
You are our dear nest!
What does fate hold for them?
Farewell dear home,
You are our dear nest!
9. You have lived a life of hard labor,
Your blood and sweat watered the earth,
And for the honest work in the end
The cold embrace of death awaits You
In the far northern forests.
Your blood and sweat watered the earth,
And for the honest work in the end
The cold embrace of death awaits You
In the far northern forests.
10. And let the executioner’s revel
Their turn will come some day
Perhaps truth will prevail in this world,
Our star will also rise!
Their turn will come some day
Perhaps truth will prevail in this world,
Our star will also rise!
11. I come from hard stock. They have long fought for freedom. My father is the former director of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies UofA and former vice-rector of the National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.
12. My sister runs the publishing house @osnovy - bringing awareness of Ukraine rich culture and heritage to the world. Her husband a filmmaker. Today they flee with their three kids ages 3 and under.
13. We #StandwithUkraine and will help to rebuild it. So many have tried to erase Ukrainian people and identity. They failed. They will always fail. Ukraine will endure and one day, flourish again. Slava Ukraini.
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