Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village

Open to the public from the May long weekend to Labour Day, the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village (Ukrainian: Село спадщини української культури, romanizedSelo spadshchyny ukrains’koi kul’tury) is an open-air museum that uses costumed historical interpreters to recreate pioneer settlements in east central Alberta, Canada, northeast and east of Edmonton. In particular it shows the lives of Ukrainian Canadian settlers from the years 1899 to 1930. Buildings from surrounding communities have been moved to the historic site and restored to various years within the first part of the twentieth century.

Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village
Map
Established1974
LocationLamont County, east of Elk Island National Park, Alberta, Canada
Typeopen-air, living history
Websitewww.history.alberta.ca/ukrainianvillage

"The Village", as it is colloquially known, has a very strong commitment to historical authenticity and the concept of living history. The Village uses a technique known as first-person interpretation which requires that the costumed performers remain in character at all times (or as much as is feasibly possible). Actors answer all questions as if it is the year their building portrays. Although this technique is startling for some visitors at first, it allows for a much stronger experience of immersion in history than traditional third-person interpretation, where the actor acknowledges that he is, in fact, in a museum.

Home Grain Co. Elevator, built circa 1922, restored to 1929 appearance.

The village is in Lamont County on the Yellowhead highway, on the eastern edge of Elk Island National Park.

Monuments

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Bust of Joseph Oleskow

Buildings

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The Museum is divided into thematic areas: Overview, Farmsteads, Rural Communities, and Town sites.

Note: the spellings used for names and locations are those from the time to which the building has been restored, and may not match those in use today

Name (indicates the name of the owners or operators of a building and its original location), as well as the time period to which it has been restored

Overview

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An interpreter from the Village

Provides an introduction to Galician and Bukovinian immigration to Canada by showing the homes of three settler families. Iwan Pylypow was one of two individuals who set off the mass migration of Ukrainians to Canada at the end of the 19th century. His family was Galician. His third house in Canada is preserved at the Village. The second house is that of Mykhailo and Vaselina Hawreliak. The Hawreliaks were a large Ukrainian Bukovinian family who settled in the Shandro area. By the 1920s Mykhailo Hawreliak was quite successful, and the house preserved here has five bedrooms and a cistern that collected rainwater for use in the kitchen. The Nazar Yurko family was also from Bukovina, but was of Romanian descent.

Farmsteads

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The "burdei" at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village.

Shows different farmyards from different eras/stages of development.

The newly arrived immigrants

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  • Burdei – Based on field research and archaeological findings; reconstructed to 1900 - Temporary shelters dug out of the ground or into

the side of a hill were a common feature of the earliest farms of the Ukrainian immigrant settlers.

The Bukovinian settlers

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  • Grekul House (Toporivtsi, Alberta; Built 1915, depicts 1918–1919)
  • Grekul Granary (Toporivtsi, Alberta; Built 1908-1909, depicts 1918–1919
  • Grekul Barn (Toporivtsi, Alberta; Built 1915, depicts 1918–1919
  • Roswiyczuk Granary (North Kotzman, Alberta; Built 1914, depicts 1918)
  • Makowichuk Barn (South Kotzman, Alberta; Built 1912, depicts 1918)

The Galician settlers

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  • Hlus' House (Buchach, Alberta; Built 1915–1916, depicts 1918)
  • Hlus' Barn (Buchach, Alberta; Built 1915, depicts 1918)
  • Hlus' Chicken Coop (Buchach, Alberta; Built 1915, depicts 1918)
  • Lakusta Barn (Amelia-Cookville, Alberta; Built 1915, depicts 1918)
  • Lakusta Granary (Amelia-Cookville, Alberta; Built 1912, depicts 1918)

The later immigrants

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  • Slemko House (South Kotzman, Alberta; Built 1912, depicts 1919)
  • Slemko Granary (South Kotzman, Alberta; Built 1913, depicts 1919)
  • Slemko Barn (South Kotzman, Alberta Built 1914, depicts 1919)
  • Pigsty (Based on field research; reconstructed to 1919)

Ukrainian-Canadian farmers

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  • Hewko House (Podola, Alberta; Built 1917–1924, depicts 1930)
  • Kitt Threshing Machine Shed (Myrnam, Alberta; Built 1922, depicts 1930)
  • Chernochan Machine Shed (Smoky Lake, Alberta; Built 1915, depicts 1925-1928[9]

Rural community (reflecting 1925–30 time period)

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Town site (reflecting 1925–30 time period)

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St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church (detail of interior mural), originally located in Vegreville, Alberta.

Affiliations

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The Museum is affiliated with: CMA, CHIN, and Virtual Museum of Canada.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Erected by the Edmonton Norwood Branch #178 of the Royal Canadian Legion. See also Canadian Expeditionary Force, History of the Royal Canadian Navy, History of the Canadian Army and History of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
  2. ^ Erected by the Alberta Ukrainian Commemorative Society
  3. ^ Erected by the Alberta Ukrainian Commemorative Society
  4. ^ Donated by the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians.
  5. ^ Erected by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association. See also www.uccla.ca.
  6. ^ erected by Plast Ukrainian Youth Association, Edmonton Branch
  7. ^ installed by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Alberta Provincial Council
  8. ^ A replica, re-creating the steel markers and pits erected across the arable areas of the Canadian Prairies by the Dominion Land Survey.
  9. ^ Built by Kosma Chernochan in 1917, was one of the first machine sheds in the Smoky Lake district. See Maryn, Sonia (1985). The Chernochan machine shed : a land use and structural history. Edmonton: Alberta Culture. p. iv.
  10. ^ Chorniawy, Cathy (1989). Commerce in the country : a land use and structural history of the Luzan grocery store. Edmonton: Alberta Culture, Historical Resources Division. p. 39.
  11. ^ see also Western Ukrainian Russophile.
  12. ^ A misnomer applied by Northern European Canadians who, at the time of the establishment of the school district, mistakenly understood that the local residents (who referred to themselves as "rusyny" – Ruthenians,) were Russian. The name of the school district was changed in the early 1930s to "Franko" school, after the famous Western Ukrainian poet and writer, Ivan Franko.
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53°34′7″N 112°47′56″W / 53.56861°N 112.79889°W / 53.56861; -112.79889 (Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village)