Ongoing Exhibition
The exhibition Sons of the Soil draws the Ukrainian Museum of Canada’s large permanent collection of archival photographs and documents, regional clothing, settler artefacts, kylym or tapestries, rushnyky (ritual embroideries), pysanky (Easter eggs), and other objects, to create a spellbinding portrait of the cultural life of the first wave of Ukrainian settlers in Canada (late 19th and early 20th centuries).
The title of this exhibition comes from the three-volume epic novel Syny zemli (Sons of the Soil), written in Ukrainian by the Ukrainian-born Alberta teacher and writer Illia Kiriak between 1939 and 1945. An abridged translation by Michael Luchovic titled Sons of the Soil appeared in 1959. The work is a valuable sociological document about Ukrainians in Alberta during the pre-Second World War period.
This display is a perennial favourite, and beloved in Saskatoon, but after more than 40 years on view, its time is drawing to an end. The artefacts on display need to conserved and replaced with other treasures from our collection. Over the next year, museum staff and a team of community knowledge keepers and museum designers will work towards a new exhibition and new display logic for the museum’s largest exhibition space.
Come by soon before Sons of the Soil is gone!