Mariya Lesiv (Memorial University of Newfoundland)
This paper in devoted to Ukrainian immigrants who settled on the Canadian island of Newfoundland before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Unlike numerous other regions of Canada known for their prominent Ukrainian presence, prior to the war the island was home to a very small number of Ukrainians. What identity formation processes do newcomers undergo in places that supply very few like-minded co-ethnics? I engage with this question through the prism of the material objects of “belonging” versus those of “being” in migrants’ homes (Povrzanović Frykman 2019), problematizing the notion of ethnicity via a narrow and nuanced regional prism.
Part of 04-03 Uprooting Ukraine: Resistance and Identity in North American Ukrainian Communities [Hybrid], Friday, November 03, 8:30 am–10:00 am