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This item contains a recording of a meeting.
Recommendations for Annual meeting.
CEESSA applied for the Income Tax number
Minutes of 1977 meeting.
Members of the meeting introduce themselves: Maurice Williams, Matrin Kovacs and others
(cannot decipher)
Board of Executives
Report from the Board: operational budget, financial situation
Meeting in Toronto
Board elected at the Banff (?) meeting
Dr. Suchowersky
An idea of Association
Establishing Provincial Committee in addition to the National Committee
Minutes of the previous meeting are published
Nominating Committee report
Proceedings could be received for a price of $12.50 (second copy for $6)
One member from each Province remains on the National Board for one more year
Procedure of election and nomination to the National Board
Correlation between National and Regional organizations
Section 17 – these organizations should be considered branches
Discussion about branches of the organization, National and Provincial boards
Section 18 – groups within association can form alliances
Item 3: report on cooperation
Nominations for Eastern and Western regions, then National nominations – the Meeting would
accept as elected. 14 elected members.
Item 6 : other business (fees; proposal for next conference in Saskatoon in June)
Government assistance to arrange conference
Concerns about joining a larger organization for the fear of losing control
Joining LEARNERD(?) Society dilemma - can different academic communities join?
Membership dues – suggested minimum $5 for the Provincial and $5 for the National
membership ($10 split two-way)
More discussions on problems of national and provincial membership/committees
Professional photographer for taking a group pictures
Manitoba branch – meeting planned on March 30

This item contains a recording of a meeting. Items discussed included: course offerings and attracting students. Ukrainian course + one suitable for the Women’s Studies. With funding, a specialist in Siberia from Calgary could come and teach - Department of Northern Affairs might be interested in it. Also discussed a need for establishing the Standing and Ad Hoc Committee. Financial and Budget Committee doing space allocation and money allocation – under the jurisdiction of the Head of
the Department. Discussing equipment matters.

This item contains minutes from a CEESSA Meeting. Topics discussed include:
Writing thanks to Hungarian Association for a very successful evening of cultural exchanges
Letter written to Prime-Minister [Pierre] Trudeau sent on November 10
Mr. Kulak is leaving for Ottawa, writing a letter to him
Correspondence: from the Minister RE. application for the grant of CEESSA that was approved – writing a reply of thanks and appreciation.
CEESSA Heritage Project
Several application to the government were sent. One was okayed, another was about to be reviewed as a priority one. Hope to hear from Monroe soon.
A letter from editor of Heritage Magazine – news about conference of CEESSA
A letter with a check for membership from Volikovsky (?)
A letter from President of McGuiness Distillery in Toronto RE donation of liquor and wine for conference
Conference letters from Sr. Williams proposing a panel discussion
Don Massey group
Professor Wojciechowski’s letter
Financial Committees report: bank loan for $1500; $3090 of donations; $600 coming. Things pending: salary + money for Christmas
Special account for conferences. Good financial standing
Publicity committee report: goal to get more members from ethnic groups of CEESSA, Canadians at large. Contacting press: Heritage Magazine, St. John Magazine. TV interviews. Priestly and Kostash work on how to organize that. Lectures on the CKUA radio about Eastern Europe.
Alberta Teachers Association contact and liaison – Mrs Lobay will have a meeting with them in January. Visiting schools with lectures about Eastern European problems. Materials to teach.
School grades 5 and 8 – information about immigrants in Canada, so schools need information to teach about roots and such.
Could there be a special Educational Committee? Recommendation for Kostash
Possibly an Ad-Hoc Committee on Education.
To which degree CEESSA supports only University activities rather than broader community’s – consulting the Constitution. Discrepancy between Constitution and the Green Pamphlet.
A sourcebook for teaching at high schools (who were the immigrants, when they came, where they settled, etc.) – not enough information
CEESSA bulletin could serve as a book review source – who and how will do that?
Curriculum: 12 units on Canadian content at $3000 each. Teachers are expected to do that on their own time, so nothing is done. Ukrainian language is dropped at high schools but Spanish gets promoted because of the immigrants from Chili. Promoting CEESSA through all possible means. January 27 – General Meeting. January 31 – Board Meeting.

This item contains a recording of a CEESSA Meeting held on September 14, 1976. Topics covered include:
A meeting regarding the project
The government of Alberta gave money for the project
Aim of part 1 of the project on East European groups – to write a book about historical background of East European immigration; size and distribution of their settlements. The book will be comprised of 10 chapters.
Mrs. Matejko on progress of the work: the work started on October of last year with statistics of all kinds on Central and Eastern European groups. Search in the Provincial Archives. Compiled bibliographies. The most detailed ones are on Poles, Russian Germans, and Jews. Less information on Romanians or people from the Baltic countries.
A need to find private collections of documents and cover 3 waves of immigration. Problems: some communities came in the 1880s, very early, like Russian Germans. Latvian immigrants were very rare, mostly after WWII.
Volunteers are needed to make contacts with old timers and do fieldwork. Germans are the largest community in Alberta coming from Volga region, Black Sea region, and Volyn apart from those from Reich. Mr. Sokolovsky was a research assistant last year and did a great job on Russians, Byelorussians. 2/3 Germans in Alberta are from Central and Eastern Europe.
Problems with counting Czechs and Slovaks because of the former Czechoslovakia. Dr. Horna is working on Slovaks group. Ms. Birzgalis is writing a massive thesis on Latvian community in Alberta (around 1010 people altogether). And Latvian community is very young and predominantly urban comparing to other ethnic groups.
Romanian community research – there is an old settler who was born in Romania. A student in anthropology in Calgary wrote thesis on Polish community – there is interest from outside and people want to help..
A linguist from Poland studies the changes of Polish language in Alberta. He has many interviews with life stories.
High schools now offer a course on ethnic groups in Alberta – they could use a source book from CEESSA.
Discussing that 5 ethnic groups under consideration now but possibly extending the number of ethnic groups for research.
Problems of intermixed settlements of Romanians.
Grant of $10000 for research: $5000 for research associates, $4000 – for field trips, $1000 – for typing.
Mrs. Matejco will be working on all the ethnic communities in addition to the Polish one, and she will get half of that grant money. The University is going to handle the money so that CEESSA will not have to deal with the receipts and report to the Ministry.
Mrs. Matejko used to work on the project for free but put in a lot of time and effort.
Field trips should be longer and more extensive when there is money.
Mrs. Horna will be paid only for her trips and Xeroxing.
People interested in working on 2 different ethnic communities on their own budget (one is a former student working in the Provincial Archives).
To complete the project, trips to the National Archives in Ottawa and archives in Toronto should be made + a trip to the B.C. Archives and Saskatoon – those have unique sources that must be included.
Dr. Rudnytskyi and Dr. [Lupul] were assigned to do a federal project on history of Ukrainians in Canada. The project is far from being completed. CEESSA did not touch the Ukrainian community because they already have the Ukrainian Institute working on it and various funding.
The German community is more difficult than any other one – they are spread all over the province.
Federal government project includes 20 ethnic groups. The only group that was not approached was Slovenes. Dr. Priestley was then asked to do the work on that group. Another group was Finns – someone is researching them now.
The federal government is not going to give money any more for researching ethnic communities because it already did so. But money could be obtained for compiling and publishing memoirs of the pioneers – it could become a bestseller.
Getting money from Canada Council would enable to finish the project without begging from the communities.

This item is a recording of a CEESSA meeting held on January 14th. Topics discussed include:
Equality of opportunities – what it means
Multicultural affairs – who to contact about it? Who is responsible for it?
How correct was a letter statement about “complete omission of ethnic groups except for Anglo-Saxon and French”
Multicultural policies on the Legislature level in Ottawa
Will the new Legislature move in the direction of multicultural research?
The time of landing of immigrants is not relevant but Canada’s constitution is geared toward the
English and French ethnic groups because they arrived first. Canada’s unity politicians talk about cannot be achieved through the use of just 2 languages.
Three points that should be incorporated in the letter: 1) [?] 2) no further legislature on multiculturalism, 3) no discussion on multiculturalism, who looks after multicultural affairs.
Could be reworded.
2 official languages but multicultural policy?
Yet there is a cultural emphasis on different ethnic groups so that Canadians would be more interested in each other. Programs are needed for young people to lean about other ethnicities.
Reading out loud a blueprint of the letter to the Prime Minister who should be informed about the existing conflict in policies regarding multiculturalism. Anything about languages should be sent not to Monroe.

This item is a recording from Banff conference of CEESSA

(Session #18): Chairman is [Andre] Tari
Only 2 sessions were allocated for the community topic
Mrs. Pelech talking about Sunday school
[Czartoryski?] talking about cultural heritage
Duska speaking about educational needs
Dudaravicius talking about identity

Dudaravicious’ presentation: identity as subjective sense of belonging in groups. Canadian identity is multiculturalism. Forcing immigrants to conform to the Anglo-Saxon or French identities., to forget their mother tongue and dances.

Mrs. Pelech: Saturday schools get grants. They are needed to preserve cultural group’s true history and provide information about it. Participants of those schools need pride and motivation. There are people-parasites who are not interested in anything except pleasures. Regular school and Saturday one compliment each other and does not compete. They teach respect to ethno-cultural heritage and be proud of it; they motivate youth for a healthy life outlook. Media and parents do not anymore encourage to learn. Edmonton school board is cooperative. Recommendation for the UofA to prepare teachers for language classes, especially in native languages. Languages should be compulsory at the university level.

Mr. Duska: Teaching our young people respect for their cultural heritage will help them respect other Canadians. We should keep children busy learning and off the streets. There is no single program at Canadian universities for Hungarian studies. Provincial governments refused to help. There was a suggestion to establish an endowment fund. Hungarians campaign to promote own language/culture at a university level.

Mr. [Czartoryski?], Executive Director of CEESSA, talking about maintaining cultural heritage. Academics, people with higher education have an obligation to go back to the communities and help with higher level of education. Academics are often accused by the community members. 30% of Alberta population are of East European background. Canadian schools struggle to develop in their students certain values.

Session 2:
Panelists: Dr. Chandler; Don [Benge] from Saskatchewan, Director of the Curriculum of the Edmonton Public School Board; Don Massey; Arthur Levin; Dean Lock; Mrs. Lobay

Dr. Chandler: Department of Education develops programs but does not build the books, about ethnic groups in particular. CEESSA’s objectives and the Department of Education’s objective can coincide and they can help each other with regards to the materials that are down to the level of the elementary children. The nature of multicultural education is beneficial and enriching for everyone. Opportunities in the curriculum for ethnic studies: good balance between Canadian studies and global studies, studies of the past and contemporary studies. Curriculum becomes more compulsory if certain goals are specifically identified. Tentative outline: grade 1 program about family should look at families of different ethnic backgrounds; grade 2 – groups that influence you. Should include what children should learn about various ethnic groups; grade 3 – communities; should take a look at communities with different ethnic cultures within Canada; grade 5 – Canada as a whole, should look at immigration and settlement in Canada; grade 7 – study of cultures in general, should look at native people in Canada and their relationship to the multicultural nature of Canada; grade 8 – study of developing nations in the World, should look at immigration policy of Canada; grade 10 – study of Canadian economic and political problems, should look at how multiculturalism adds to national unity. A Committee set up to develop materials for the program, and CEESSA should contact the Committee.

A motion to form a National Society

This item is a recording of a CEESSA Meeting where the roles and nomination process for the committee was discussed.

This item is a recording of a CEESSA meeting. Content includes:
Deciding on the day of election: Thursday, April 27 at 7:30
Difference between academic community and society – the society can do many more things.
Official name – CEESSA
Applause
Only 5 mins of sound

This item is a recording of the Annual General Meeting of CEESSA.
Electing the President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary
Describing the functions of each position
Not holding any office for more than 2 years
Nomination for President: Mrs. Lobay – accepted the nomination
Nomination for Vice-President: Dr. Metro Galutsan – accepted the nomination
Nomination for Treasurer: Mr. Dudaravicius – accepted the nomination
Nomination for Secretary: Dr. Bela Biro – accepted the nomination, appointed by acclamation
Mr. Kostash – would rather go to the educational committee
Mr. Kuester – appointed to the publicity committee
The finance committee – Algis Dudaravicius
Nominating Chairman: Mr. Kostash
Nominating Committee: Mr. Spillios, Mr. [Yerevic], Mr. [?]
Mr. Priesley and Mr. Kostash will appoint their own respective committees
The Nominating Committee had to be appointed today in case of some emergency
May 3, 7:30 – next meeting
Meeting adjourned

Side B- a lesson in the Russian Language (exercise in translation)

This item is an audio file containing the very last moment of Mr. Schmid's address, applause , and Mr. Agust Osis- his common prayer concludes the conference of CEESSA of 1977.

This item is a recording of a meeting of CEESSA. Discussions include the question of Hungarian and other courses at the university, the constitution and procedures of the committee, membership dues, and the name of the society.
Department of Education set up a committee on curriculum development but will there be ethnic content or just Canadian? “Units” of studies: “Ethnic mosaic” and “Alberta”. Making sure the ethnic groups get recognition in the history of Western Canada. Working together with Heritage Council History of Western Canada discriminates certain ethnic groups. Some Social Studies programs need to be revised.
Important feature – sizable new groups of immigrants from Eastern Europe. Travel concerns to those countries.
80% of Germans in Alberta are from Eastern Europe. Up to 40% of Alberta population is from Continental Europe

This item is a recording of a meeting discussing the logistics of the Central and Eastern European society. At this meeting the society was formally established and committees were created.

This item is a recording of an annual general meeting in [1976]. Reports were given by the President, Secretary, Treasurer, Academic Research Committee, Publicity Committee, and Executive Director. A new board was elected.

This item contains recordings from the Second Banff Conference on Central and East European Studies.
Presentation by Mr. Petr Czarnowsky: Eastern Europeans, despite their proportion of the population, came to form a large number, often over 50% of ethnic associations in Alberta. This includes ethnic organizations, arts organizations, and linguistic schools. Policies of multiculturalism have helped to form these figures, but have had the unforeseen consequence of adding to confusion about Eastern European ethnic groups on the part of students and teachers alike.

Presentation by Mr. Joanna Mateko on the problems already being faced in the study of Poles. She came from Poland associated with the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw for 15 years. She did work in the field of Polish history, having published numerous articles and co-author of bibliographies that were compiled by the Polish academy of sciences. She does her research on the Poles in Alberta. A problem that exists in the study of Poles is the inaccuracy of academic and official documents pertaining to Polish settlement in Canada, and the difficulty in unearthing accurate depictions and statistics of Polish settlers, and Slavic settlers more generally. This can be derived from a lack of knowledge from Canadian officials, and a lack of consciousness amongst many Slavic groups, particularly the Poles and Ukrainians.

Presentation by Mr. John Sokolowski, a graduate student in the department of Slavic Languages, his first graduate program was as a Classicist. He does work on the Russians and Belarussians. He started his work on the East Slavs, the Russians, Belarussians, and Ukrainians in Alberta. They no longer work on the Ukrainians as so much work has been published. They started their study with the Russians and Belarussians, they hope to determine an accurate number of people of Russian and Belarussian origin in Alberta. Contention on the accurate number of Russians and Belarussians in Canada, as the definition of Russian has changed over time, with many early documents associating many non-Russian ethnic groups as Russian. Dynamics have changed with census records over the years, which still continue to be unreliable. There is thought to be far more Belarussians in Canada than official census documents would suggest.

Presentation by Mrs. Dr. Yermilla Horna University of Calgary Department of Sociology. Dr. Horna was educated in Prague and Bratislava came to Canada in ’58, taking part in the project doing the history of the Czechs and the Slovaks. She got a grant for the study of patterns of adjustment of Czechoslovaks, the so called refugees of 1968-1969. The study focused on pre-1968 settlement of Czechoslovaks in Canada to figure out if incoming refugees had a previous basis to go off of, or had to ‘start from scratch’. Research found majority of Czechoslovaks came to Alberta as miners, farmers, or other labourers, mostly from Slovakia. Greatest wave of Czechoslovak migration prior to 1968 came in 1885.

Presentation by Mr. Kostash: Talks about the function of universities. Talks about how East European and Soviet Studies at the university follows the same functions. Mentions that one who takes particular focus on the East European courses offered by the University can find themselves being skilled and knowledgeable scholars. Initiatives by professors at the university to make sure students in the field go out to the ethnic communities to get a feel for how they are. Talks about the importance of community approval and funding for new programs. Stresses transparency of activities in programs as it relates to the community.

Presentation by Mr. Duruviches, a member of the Lithuanian community, and President of the Baltic Society: Discusses the contention with the label ‘Soviet’, coming from Lithuania, and the history Lithuania has with the Soviet Union. The importance of having a place such as a University to study one’s heritage. Expects from the University that it is kept in mind that although their issues are similar at the moment, that Baltic peoples are not Slavic peoples.

Presentation by Dr. Bergin from the Faculty of Education: has a strong interest in Mennonite culture. Difficulties because of mixed loyalties on representing different groups; particularly the Mennonites, who aren’t easily identified by typical visages.

Presentation by Dr. Sukoversky: the definition of a collection, and that professors start collections. Students can start collections too. Ethnic groups can start collections.

Presentation by the Chairman of Edmonton Historical Board

Presentation by Mr. Kistner: Wasn’t prepared to present but is talking from the perspective of a foot soldier. He is Baltic German born in Tallinn Estonia. Talks about how maps often forget about the islands of Estonia. Baltic Germans is a very small group. It’s worthwhile for even very small groups to write their history and preserve their heritage. In doing work there’s lots of assistance needed, time, and footwork. Being a small group has its advantages, no need for sampling.

This item contains recordings of an interview with Dr. Tova Yedlin for "Cultural Crossroads", information about the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, and recordings of German music

This item is a recording of a conference presentation. Shevchenko as a national poet of Ukraine. Major developments that might take place in the next few decades: long term climatic conditions, changes in climate are less predictable; the capacity for food production will be not as good but the population will be expending sharply – tremendous pressure for food, massive famines. Restructuring of political power is coming. Atomic weaponry is a threat. Expansion of education will result in diffusion of power of political decision making. Physical limits of human activity. Redistribution and optimization of natural resources. Economic shocks for the US: Japan’s economic growth, Vietnam war, Chinese experience. Product life cycle. The USA will not be able to impose their will on other nations. In Europe, new political construction will take place. There will be a power bigger than a nation-state. European countries have similar stages of development and are ready for globalization. Every nation will retain its national heritage but they will unite on a global political level. China’s influence will grow in the decades to come. It will be less dependent on other countries. Unlike the Soviet Union, China retained more equality. American model is not appropriate to countries that have no natural wealth. Japanese had high motivation and an obsession for learning technology while preserving own traditions. They have capacity for national cooperation in the face of a threat. Japanese will be performing another miracle – just watch them. They will be a model for European countries. Soviet Union has tremendous range of natural resources. Its potential productivity is very high. Marks’ proposition was true for limited resources. Communist society is supposed to be highly cooperative in the absence of material scarcity. But USSR is the last empire and it is disintegrating quite quickly. What is awaiting for the USSR? It can become a supplier for more developed countries. Atomic war is also a probability but it could happen only accidentally; possibly a conventional war with China. It does not pay to keep an empire. Now much energy is being wasted on keeping that empire alive instead of developing. Ukraine in this context is a modern nation; it has generous natural resources. It has a necessary infrastructure for an efficient country.

This item is a recording about artist William Kurelek and author Myrna Kostash

This item is a recording of an interview with Mr. and Mrs. Fenske, recorded February 13, 1982. Mrs. Fenske discusses how a whole community came to Canada by boat because of the Depression and were pressed to join the Orthodox Russian Church, but did not want to. The church was the centre of all activities with service three times per day. They used the German language at home, and their parents went to German school back in Russia. Mr. Fenske's father came to Canada alone in 1893, Mr. Fenske was born in 1902.

This item contains an interviews with Mrs. Lydia Kupsch (nee. Rosnal), a German Russian who was born in Volynia in 1896 before immigrating to Canada in 1902. She talks of life in Russia and then life in Stoney Plain and Bruderheim. She also discusses her husband and her wedding. For part of the interview, there is an older interview being played while people are talking over it.

This item is an interview with Fred Prybysh conducted in Ukrainian on February 19, 1976. In the interview Mr. Prybysh discusses immigration to Canada and the Russian Orthodox Church in Edmonton.