New Ukrainian village homestead honours all newcomers, says deputy premier

14.08.2017, 15:55

The provincial Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village opened a new homestead Sunday, celebrating the hard work of another family who helped build Alberta.

It’s a way to honour the role of all newcomers, said deputy premier Sarah Hoffman, making the point while the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., dominated the news.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Hoffman said of the violence.

“When families came to Canada 100 years ago, and when families come to Canada today, they bring with them a richness of the land they came from,” said Hoffman, whose mother is Ukrainian. “Fortunately, they don’t have to build a house by hand and reapply the flooring every week with a paste of manure, but certainly life is hard for newcomers.”

The new homestead illustrates life near the turn of the century for immigrants from Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia, in the western part of modern-day Ukraine. The Hlus house, barn and chicken coop were moved to the living museum from about 11 miles north of Innisfree, Alta.

The heritage village, located 50 kilometres east of Edmonton, shows what life was like from 1892 to 1930, a time when Ukrainians became the predominate settlers from Fort Saskatchewan to Vermillion.

The homestead is part of a major expansion that will see 20 new buildings moved and restored for the museum.

Eighty-eight-year old Genia (Hlus) Saik remembers coming home from church and playing in the front yard with friends. She grew up in the house — moving between their new wood house and this old clay-insulated house for the summer.

“We’d be going to church and we’d have company in, we’d all be playing outside and be close. Oh yes, there are memories,” she said, attending the grand opening and the blessing of the house with dozens of other descendants. Many of them helped restore the house, applying the clay to the walls two summers ago.

“That was emotional when I was claying it,” she said.

The home has two rooms plus a storage or pantry. One room serves as the kitchen and bedroom, with the other room used for guests. It was built in 1915, after Andrew and Maria Hlus’ first house burnt down in a grass fire.

Andrew Hlus helped his family settle on a homestead, then worked for the rail company and in the Edmonton coal mines before starting to farm. The team found small bottles for holy water drilled into the four corners of the foundation of the house. These were replaced in a blessing ceremony Sunday.

 

Elise Stolte

13 August 2017 Edmonton Journal