Trilogy: The Land Speaks...
For as long as I can remember, I have been in contact with the spirits. It is my relationship with spirits, the ancestors, and the land that is at the heart of this project. What emerges from those relationships is Sacred Knowledge, and what in turn emerges from Sacred Knowledge is an unfolding understanding of what is held "in the land" and what it means to be in integrity to the land and its peoples ~ in particular, the First Peoples who caretake and protect the lands I, as second generation Ukrainian Canadian settler, am guest upon.
I have been "living" the books for many decades, pre-writing the books for the past 9 years, developing the concepts for the trilogy for 2 years, and actively researching and writing with direction for 1 year. Phew!
Details...
My name is Nikki Manzie. I am a second generation Ukrainian Canadian settler, living in Hul”qumi”num territory. My paternal grandparents immigrated to Canada in 1910. My grandfather was born in Bilche Zolote, in what was previously Galicia, and my grandmother was born in a little village just outside of Kiev. My father, the sixth child, was born to my grandparents late in their lives.
I am writing a trilogy, in a mixed format, exploring the rooting of sacred healing knowledge of Ukrainian Canadians in a land where we are guests. I am seeking funding to cover costs of research, travel, editing, translation, printing, promotion, and other related expenses. This project is extensive and will happen in 4 phases.
Structure of Books
Each book will contain two distinct and independent parts. Part 1 will be written in a story-format, and Part 2 will be written in essay-format.
Part 1: Story-format
Fictionalised-true-story of personal experiences as a second-generation Ukrainian Canadian woman discovering the sacred knowledge, healing traditions and cultural practices of Ukrainian grandparents and ancestors at a time of attempted reconciliation. The complexity of the layers that are encountered, one book to the next, are delineated below.
Part 2: Essay-Format
Presentation of first and second-hand research findings and commentary on research, giving context and further explication of the material as it relates to the Ukrainian Canadian community – historically and current-day.
Themes and Complexity of Material
- Book 1: Reclamation and reawakening of sacred healing knowledge by Ukrainian Canadian Diaspora through their relationship with the land, the ancestors, and the spirits of the land (Dukhy Pryrody).
Revivification of ancestral and cultural practices and traditions, including sacred knowledge as it relates to land, healing, values and spirituality is vital to the healing and empowerment of those who have directly or historically experienced oppression, cultural genocide/ attempted genocide, and subjugation. Sacred healing knowledge of Ukrainians is firmly rooted in their relationship to the land (Ukraine). For Ukrainian immigrants, then, sacred knowledge must be “transposed and translated” to a new land, utilizing body-centred skills and tools that allow Sacred Knowledge to form and accumulate, along with information gathering skills. Historically, this gathering of information was supported through relationship with Indigenous Nations in the various regions Ukrainian immigrants began to settle within Canada.
For subsequent generations of Ukrainian Canadians, Sacred Knowledge was thus based on whatever was passed on from previous generations, as well as their own direct relationship with the land, ancestors and spirits of the land. As Ukrainian Diaspora in Canada understand their own roots – as they revive and express cultural practices and grow an appreciation for where and whom they come from while honouring the relationship they have with the lands they are guests within – they foster a sense of personal-history, contribute to healthier relations from a place of self-awareness and respect for their culture and history, and have perspective that lends itself to compassionate understanding of other cultures, including those cultures’ historical wounds and trauma, and any contributions to those that call for amendment therein (in particular, First Nations).
Of particular note, there is a sector of the Diaspora who has been disconnected from their ancestral culture, history, language and roots. Relationship to the land (as guests), the revivification process, and the nature of Sacred Healing Knowledge as it lives “within” is a primary focus of Book 1. The Diaspora at large will find the material enriching with respect to the importance of further developing outreach to and education of all sectors of the community.
- Book 2: Redressing and healing the echoes of intergenerational memory and trauma.
Cultural memory is held in the “bones and blood,” independent of cultural exposure. As in Book 1, revivification arises from that which is inherent, held in the body and awakened through the body. Memory is also held in the land on multiple levels. One way to think about these various ways memory is stored is to realise that everything (around you and within you) is “listening” all the time. The imprints of what has been “heard” can slowly dissipate and give way to new imprints, or be regurgitated and released, or remain frozen (as in the case of unaddressed and unhealed trauma) as residue until such time that they are re-stimulated.
Amongst Ukrainian Canadians, some of the memories and experiences (that remain frozen or partially regurgitated) held in the bones, blood and various lands can include: displacement; loss/ oppression of language, customs, and rituals; poverty; forced labour; starvation; holocaust and war atrocities.
Memory in the land is multi-layered, and holds the traumas of multiple peoples. With respect to First Nations in Canada, this can include: earliest contact and disease; forced removal from land and families over 150+ years; major disruption to the land (resource over-depletion); residential school traumas; oppression of culture, traditions and language; ongoing missing and murdered women, children and men; racism, hate and hate crimes. The historical intersection with Ukrainian Canadian community includes the misleading representation of the land as being “unsettled” (where Canadian government attempted attract immigrant labourers in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s); interment, forced labour and displacement; “silence” as a survival and coping mechanism. It also includes the support given to early Ukrainian immigrants by Indigenous Peoples as they adjusted to new lands, resources, wild-foods and medicines.
Understanding that land, community and individuals exist not as independent of one another, but entwined within one another then leads to a comprehension of: how sacred knowledge is influenced and impacted by the various layers of memory held in the blood, bones and land (particularly unresolved trauma and unaddressed memory); how sacred knowledge is informed by the various peoples who share the land (with a focus to Ukrainian Canadians and Indigenous Peoples); and, how opening to the land and those who share it can help stimulate and awaken latent sacred knowledge. (As a point of reference, please refer to Anna Marie Sewell’s short discussion on her collaboration with Shumka Dance for their production “Ancestors and Elders.” https://vimeo.com/261337713)
- Book 3: Reconciliation-with and responsibility-to the land and original peoples where Ukrainian Canadians find themselves as guests. Given the nature of sacred healing knowledge, and given the confluence of shared land and memory, it becomes imperative to respectfully root Ukrainian Canadian sacred knowledge in right relationship to the land and its original peoples.
Within this, then, Ukrainian Canadians have the responsibility to 1. Acknowledge the traumas of and enact healing within its own community and peoples, and by so doing, 2. Acknowledge the trauma of Indigenous peoples and Nations inflicted within (the geo-political zone of) Canada, of which Ukrainian Canadian immigrants are intricately tied within the story, thereby 3. Supporting reconciliation through education of Diaspora, and 4. Properly rooting sacred knowledge, as respectful guests, in right relationship to the lands and its First Peoples.
Contribution to Enhancement of Knowledge of Ukrainian Canadians
In university, I wrote a thesis entitled “Wawakanakehsek: Crooked Narrows, the Path between World Views; the Synthesis of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Western Scientific Knowledge.” The external culmination of the thesis was a set of policy recommendations with respect to co-management practices between Indigenous Nations and the Canadian government for natural resources. The internal culmination was a complete shift of my own worldview. One particular teaching, repeated by several of the elders whom I interviewed, stood out: the individual, community and land are viewed as “one.” When the health and well-being of the land suffers, so too do the health of the community and the individual, suffer. If disease arises in an individual, then it likewise arises in the community and in the land. They are entwined – suffused within one another – and inform one another.
The sacred healing knowledge (“medicine”) of our ancestors is not just given or taught one generation to the next. It is inherent, in our “bones and blood”. And, it arises (and is expressed) through our connectivity to nature (land) and community. Indeed, we all carry medicine. Some are tasked with the responsibility to be of service through this medicine to the land, spirits and community.
Each day, in my prayers and offerings, I give thanks to my own ancestors, and to the ancestors of this land. It is never far from my awareness that I live where I do because others were displaced, in both lines. One night, I felt that my roots and prayers could only go “so deep.” It was as if I hit a barrier that I was not permitted to go beyond. I approached the local medicine woman who serves the Hul”qumi”num Nations where I live. I explained myself as a second generation Ukrainian Canadian settler in her people’s territory. I told her about my experience, and that I could sense that I needed permission in order to connect more deeply with the land in order to continue to serve it, and those whom I work with. She gave a resounding “Yes! We and the land need more helpers!”
Receiving permission relieved something in my unconscious that I did not know even existed. It was ancestral, and it was also of this lifetime – it was multi-layered… It was an acknowledgement of shared responsibility and also shared medicine via our connection and relationship to the land. It was an acknowledgement of the First Peoples of this land, and their reciprocal acceptance of and permission to me to be here, to root my medicine here more fully and deeply.
If I were to visit Ukraine, I would be visiting the lands of my ancestors. It is not my homeland. Being born here, I must, even yet, acknowledge my place as a settler-guest on these lands. How then do Ukrainian Canadians “root” their medicine? Being in right relationship with sacred knowledge means also being in right relations with the land and all its peoples, particularly the First Peoples. It is not to deny the medicines of the Ukrainian Canadians, nor the generations that have called this home. Quite the contrary, being in right relations strengthens that which we carry and express, and brings healing across all lines and times.
Ukrainian Canadians (indeed, all settlers) are in a unique (and, I feel, potent) position in this respect – where there is deep wounding and lack of acknowledgement of historical occurrences, the energy of these wounds will continue to seep into and affect the well-being of communities and individuals who share the lands. Bringing awareness to historical and present-day occurrences as well as doing the work of reconciliation contributes to “best relations” for all peoples and promotes healthy vibrant communities, land, traditions and allows sacred knowledge to root, grow and evolve.
Details and Methodology of Research and Writing
Phase 1 (Year 1 of 4): To be completed over the length of 1 year, from July 2020-June 2021.
• Interviews with Diaspora;
• Interviews with individuals involved in the production of Shumka Dance’s “Ancestors and Elders”;
• Interviews with Indigenous Knowledge and Medicine Keepers;
• Research of Ukrainian Canadian history and experiences (sacred knowledge and its expression by immigrants and descendents; internment experiences and intergenerational memory and trauma; Holodomar and intergenerational memory and trauma); and, Indigenous experiences, relations and reconciliation within Canada via written, audio and video-documentary and archival information.
• Complete draft of Book 1 of 3;
• Initial edit of Book 1;
• Seek publisher of Book 1 with commitment to Books 2 and 3.
Phase 2 (Year 2 of 4): To be completed over the length of 1 year, July 2021-July 2022.
• Any interviews or research for refinement of knowledge;
• Final edit and publishing of Book 1;
• Development and writing of Book 2 of 3.
• Skeleton of Book 3 developed
Phase 3 (Year 3 of 4): To be completed over the length of 1 year, July 2022-July 2023.
• Any interviews or research for refinement of knowledge;
• Editing, publishing of Book 2;
• Promotion of Book 1;
• Development and writing of Book 3 of 3.
Phase 4 (Year 4 of 4): To be completed over the length of 1 year, July 2023-July 2024.
• Editing, publishing of Book 3;
• Promotion of Books.
Project Budget...
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