This series contains photographs, maps and other information about specific locations relevant to the Ukrainian community in Brazil. A subseries is dedicated to landscapes and cityscapes, providing a general sense of the physical appearance of those places. If an item deals with a particular public location that is not specifically associated with Ukrainian cultural life, such as a big cathedral in a city, then it is placed in the series on Public Spaces below. The collected fieldwork on various specific folkloric traditions reveals that Ukrainian Brazilian culture has had strong regional diversity as it became consolidated over the 20th century, and this diversity continues to some degree. A separate subseries of maps in this series contains general and detailed, contemporary and historical maps of Brazil, Paraná specifically, and especially the Municipio of Prudentópolis. Many of the maps are reproduced by photography, and thus divided in segments.
This series contains information on immigration history to Brazil, with a strong focus on Ukrainian immigration. Some interviews and documents describe particular migration stories, and others provide more generalized narratives. Early years in the cities and in the colonias predominate, though historical and family developments throughout the 20th centuries are included, such as secondary migration into northwest Paraná, the anti-ethnic tension in the period of World War Two, later waves of immigration, and relations with Ukraine. A subseries devoted to Ethnic Public Monuments focuses strongly on Ukrainian commemorations, but include those of neighbouring ethnic groups. Items produced as Ukrainian national symbols are collected into a separate subseries, strongly connected with materials in the series on Organized Life and on the Ukrainian churches. The subseries on Museums contains documentation of the physical structures of the museums, and overviews of their collections and presentation. If a photograph or other document focuses on a particular museum object, it is placed in the series on Settlements, Agriculture, Homelife, Organized Life, or Church Life, as most relevant. A smaller subseries is devoted to Education, and particularly Ukrainian educational materials and activities in Brazil. Documentation about general Brazilian historical culture, treated self-consciously as “heritage” is also found here (materials about old houses, historic transport, pioneering farming practices for example).
This series contains materials associated with agriculture, agricultural practices, and tools, including contemporary agriculture, as well as remnants and remembrances of practices from the past. The idea of agriculture is treated broadly here, and this series includes related traditional activities and crafts such as animal husbandry, textile making, lumbering, hunting, stonework, shoemaking, barrel making, and others. Information specifically about plants and animals is collected in a special subseries.
This series has a strong focus on church architecture, with many photo essays documenting the current form of dozens of particular churches, their interiors, exteriors, and churchyards. A second strong focus is on icons, holy pictures, and religious art. A great many of the approximately 240 Ukrainian churches in Brazil were built after the 1960s, and many have been (re)painted since that time. Numerous local and international iconographers and painters have been engaged to paint them, many with strong personal styles and diverse skill levels. Numerous other holy pictures are displayed in houses, public facilities, museums, and in the artists’ studios. During the fieldwork, an explicit research interest developed in the various iconographers and painters, with dedicated interviews in several cases. This series also assembles historic information and participant observation of religious life from parishioners’ perspectives. Video recordings include church services and holiday celebrations. This series overlaps closely with the series on Calendar and Life Cycle celebrations, and with the series on organized life.
This series assembles the variety of information on Ukrainian Brazilian culture that has been assembled by Andriy Nahachewsky after May 2010, when he returned to Canada.
This series is reserved for documents, photos, recordings which either don’t fit well into previous series, or seem relevant but which are unidentified.
