Providing children with the means to connect with their ancestry is something with which most groups tend to identify, and the Ukrainian United School in Morden is no different.
The institution has been a dream years in the making for its founder and principal, Yevgeniya Tatarenko, who waited over five years for her vision to come to fruition.
Recently, the school held its grand opening.
It was a multifaceted and momentous occasion that put the finishing touches on a journey that spans continents, honours the past, looks forward to the future, and fulfills a promise to a loved one.
An anticipated event
Tatarenko says the doors to the Ukrainian school opened this year on February 15th. Since then, everyone at the school has been working to treat the grand opening as an opportunity to represent the school’s spirit.
“We try hard to teach our kids the Ukrainian language and the culture, and not just that, but also to teach them to dance and to sing,” says Tatarenko. “We were successful with that, and I was just blown away by my teachers and our choreographer and our choir teacher — what they did to showcase the talent of our kids.”
For Tatarenko and the community in attendance, which included various friends and dignitaries, the occasion was a joyous one.
“[There were] a lot of happy and sweet moments for all of us,” she says. “It was not just ... to show [people] the school officially, it was also an opportunity to bring our supporters and friends and families to say thank you.”
Tatarenko says that as part of the day, various speeches were given by the special guests in attendance. Many of them touched the room deeply.
“With every speech, we were almost crying because it was so emotional,” she says.
There was also a ribbon-cutting ceremony, cake, and performances by the school's students.
“Our kids prepared a really powerful song that is the symbol of the fight for our country nowadays,” says Tatarenko. “Parents were almost crying .... It was absolutely a moment to see.”
'I’ll open a Ukrainian school for you’
The school's vision, as one might expect, has its roots in Ukraine.
“How everything started ... makes me feel goosebumps every time,” says Tatarenko.
“When I was immigrating to Canada, my parents didn't know that we were immigrating. We were in the process, and the three days before leaving Ukraine, we came to visit my family.”
Tatarenko says she broke the news that she would be leaving the country for Canada.
At the time, her father was quite sick, and the family knew he wouldn’t be able to follow in the future. This unfortunate circumstance left the question of where Tatarenko’s mother would go.
Tatarenko says she encouraged her mother, a Ukrainian language teacher, to make plans to come to Canada as well. Through this, the idea for the Ukrainian school began to take shape.
“[She said,] ‘I don't think that it will work [to come to Canada] because what will I do?’ ... Then I told her, ‘You will do the same thing you are doing now in Ukraine.’”
When her mother expressed confusion over how that would be possible, Tatarenko was there with an answer.
“I told her, ‘I'll open the Ukrainian school for you.’”
Fulfilling a promise
Tatarenko says that one year after stepping foot on Canadian soil, her project began to take shape in 2017.
She did, however, also encounter some hurdles.
“I opened the doors of my Ukrainian school ... and we started to make history at that time. Then COVID came, and then the full-scale war postponed everything,” she says.
Now, after a rebuilding period, the grand opening signifies another new beginning.
“Finally, we were able and we were lucky to reopen our doors with so much of the support of so many people, the community, the school, and the school division,” says the founder.
While the path hasn’t been easy (Tatarenko is not only the principal but also teaches full-time and raises a family), it has been worthwhile.
“It's hard, but then you come to the school and all those kids just want to meet you and they want to hug you and they were missing you the whole week,” she says. “It's just mind-blowing.”
Building identity
As for the school's objective, Tatarenko says that the goal is to create an environment on Saturday mornings in which students can “realize and know that they are Ukrainians.”
She says that knowing about culture, holidays, traditions, and customs is all part of this knowledge of becoming "a Ukrainian family in Canada."
Tatarenko says the school also prioritizes being a part of the community and giving back to it.
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It strives to be an example as well.
“What we learned with other communities all over Manitoba and probably from other provinces is that people are watching us and what we're doing,” she says. “They can also be inspired.”
A unique partnership
Something else that stands out about the Ukrainian United School is its vision for partnership with Indigenous communities.
“What we're going to do and what we are already doing [is] learning from and with our friends, the Indigenous people of Canada,” says Tatarenko.
“It’s not something new for Canada because of Truth and Reconciliation actions and so on, but for Ukrainians, it's a little bit different,” she says. “We were always friends and we were actually neighbours.”
Tatarenko is referencing the rich history of the relationship between early Ukrainian settlers and the Indigenous peoples of the region.
“We learned from each other, and we shared so many things,” she says, adding that her school strives to continue that tradition.
Whether Tatarenko is building a school from scratch or dreaming of ways to enrich it, ultimately, her objective is to demonstrate to the children who attend that anything is achievable.
“We show our kids that everything is possible and that's why it's my goal to ... always do something different, something more, and to show the world another way, a different way, a new way of teaching,” she says.
With files from Connie Bailey
