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Strength in Diversity
by By Susan Poizner, Special to the Sun, The Toronto Sun, 6/26/2005
Many Cultures Make Our Country Unique
I'VE SEEN Paris. I lived in Moscow. I reported from Istanbul, Marrakech, Jerusalem and a handful of other exotic destinations. But in 2002, after 17 years of living and working in foreign countries, I decided to move back to Canada, the country of my youth.
At first I assumed that by coming back here, I would no longer be able to explore diverse cultures in the way that I did in Europe and the Middle East. Then, in England, I met a Canadian named Sergei who opened my eyes to Canada's hidden communities.
Sergei told me about the Russian Doukhobors in British Columbia, a fascinating Christian pacifist group that still practises traditions their ancestors brought from Russia in 1899. They're famous for a cappella music and vegetarian food.
Then there are the First Nations people, the Acadians, the Ukrainians and a dozen other groups settled in tight communities across the country. I realized a person could travel the world, enjoying colourful cultures and foods, without ever leaving Canada.
I had the opportunity to travel from coast to coast for my TV series Mother Tongue, which investigates the stories of 13 remarkable women from Canada's ethnic communities. In each community, I visited ethnic museums, heritage sites, shops and restaurants.
What I found was some of the country's most exciting -- and little known -- cultural travel destinations. Here are a few examples:
BRITISH COLUMBIA
The pacifist Doukhobors were persecuted in Russia for centuries. In the late 1800s, a prominent Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, heard about their plight and helped raise the money to send 7,000 Doukhobors to Canada.
Today, modern-day Doukhobors still live in Castlegar and Grand Forks in South Central British Columbia. The Castlegar Doukhobor Village Museum illustrates how the Doukhobor pioneers lived in communes, sharing resources and the labour in the fields.
In Grand Forks, the Mountainview Doukhobor Museum contains a delightful jumble of artifacts, crafts and heirlooms. It was established in one of the last standing original Doukhobor communal homes.
Doukhobor food is all vegetarian and it is rich and delicious. The Borscht Bowl restaurant serves creamy borscht, accompanied by baked turnovers called "pirogi" stuffed with potatoes, cheese or beans.
ALBERTA
There are more than a hundred Byzantine-style churches in East Central Alberta, thanks to the estimated 30,000 Ukrainian pioneers who came to Canada at the turn of the last century. Lamont County has compiled a list of 50 of these delightful little buildings so visitors can take a self-guided driving tour.
The Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, located in Androssan, near Edmonton, is a great place to spend a day. With dozens of beautifully restored buildings, costumed guides and authentic food, it tells the story of Ukrainian immigrants from 1892 to the 1930s.
Small towns like Smoky Lake still have a small Ukrainian community. And bigger cities like Vegreville also enjoy celebrating their heritage. On July 1-3, 2005 Vegreville will host the Ukrainian Pysanka Festival with music, dancing and traditional food.
SASKATCHEWAN
Drive north in Saskatchewan and eventually you'll reach Lac La Ronge Provincial Park. Surrounded by sparking lakes, forests and rivers, this is the heart of Woodland Cree country where aboriginals have hunted and gathered for thousands of years.
In this remote and largely undiscovered area you can rent canoes or go fishing or hiking in the bush. Make the town of La Ronge your home base and meet members of the community at the Kikinahk Friendship Centre, which organizes social events.
Life for the First Nations changed drastically with the coming of the fur trade in the late 1700s, and you can visit a modern-day fur trading post in La Ronge. Robertson's Trading sells groceries alongside fur pelts, as well as Cree beadwork and crafts.
Then travel further north to Stanley Mission to visit The Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Saskatchewan's oldest historic building. Built between 1854-1860 it attracted many Cree converts, who felt Christianity complemented their own spirituality.
NEW BRUNSWICK
Horns are blasting. And revellers, with their faces painted the colours of the Acadian flag, bang on pots and pans as the car parade drives by. This is the zany Tintamarre Parade that takes place on National Acadian Day (Aug. 15) in historic Saint John, N.B.
This type of parade takes place across the province and in the Acadian communities of Nova Scotia. There are also outdoor parties, concerts with Acadian music and other activities celebrating the history of a community that has lived in Canada for 400 years.
That history began with the arrival of French adventurers like Charles LaTour. He started a fur trading post on the site of modern-day Saint John. Take a walk along the scenic Harbour Path and you'll find the Fort LaTour archeological site, which is hidden under a grassy mound.
QUEBEC
Jews, whose history in Montreal dates back to 1759, became the largest non-English or French speaking ethnic group in the city by the early 1900s with a population of 60,000 by 1913. They lived in a ghetto in and around "The Main" -- which is today's St-Laurent Street north of Sherbrooke. The Montreal Jewish Public Library organizes walking tours of this historic area.
Montreal is still famous for its Jewish food. Schwartz's on St-Laurent is a Montreal landmark, serving the city's most famous Jewish smoked meat. Further north, authentic delicious Montreal bagels can be found at the Fairmont or St-Viateur bakeries.
The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre and Museum tells the story of the Jewish Holocaust survivors who came to Canada after World War II.
During my time exploring ethnic Canada, I met wonderful people and saw beautiful parts of the country. But this journey also changed me. When I moved away from this country as a teenager, I thought Canada was "boring." Now I feel proud to live in a country that has been a safe haven for so many over the years.
BOTTOM LINE
MORE INFORMATION: For details on any of these destinations, visit mothertongue.ca . The series will be broadcast in the autumn of 2005. Susan Poizner is a freelance journalist, travel writer and TV producer and can be reached at info@mothertongue.ca.
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This series of educational videos was made possible with funding from
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Mother Tongue: A woman's history of ethnic Canada is a 13-part TV series that documents Canada's multicultural history from a female perspective. Each program tells the story of a notable woman in one of Canada's communities, including a Black fugitive slave, an Acadian mail order bride, and an Icelandic suffragette.
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