The Edna-Star colony, also called the Nebyliv colony, or the Ukrainian block settlement is the largest and oldest of the Ukrainian Canadian block settlements. Located east of Edmonton, in east-central Alberta, the boundaries of the block settlement include all or part of multiple municipal districts, within census divisions numbers 12 and 10.
A block settlement is a type of rural ethnic enclave found throughout Western Canada. The founding of this block settlement in 1891 marked the beginning of large-scale Ukrainian immigration to Canada. The region has been described at being as important to Ukrainian Canadian culture as Acadiana is to the Cajuns of Louisiana.
![A 1911 photograph of "Ruthenian [Ukrainian] settlers in Alberta". The older couple in front are (partly) in national costume. The man sports a "Cossack moustache" and is wearing a kuchma (fur cap), the woman a poias (sash) over a sorochka vyshyvanka (embroidered blouse) and a home-woven skirt. The khata (cottage) is made in the vernacular style of notched logs and has a thatched roof. Ruthenian settlers, Alberta (HS85-10-23670).jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/Ruthenian_settlers%2C_Alberta_%28HS85-10-23670%29.jpg/220px-Ruthenian_settlers%2C_Alberta_%28HS85-10-23670%29.jpg)
Native of Nebyliv (near Kalush) Wasyl Eleniak, while employed in the lumbering industry driving rafts down Limnytsia, heard tales from some local German colonists (West Ukraine was part of Austria-Hungary as the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria) whose relatives in Canada "received 160 acres for nothing". [1] The Eleniak's parents owned only 3 morgens of land and decided to check the rumors and emigrate to Canada. [1]
The colony was founded by a group of Ukrainian settlers led by Iwan Pylypow in 1891 (although he himself did not settle permanently until the next year). Pylypow's first farm was near the present-day village of Star, Alberta, then called Edna, and the name Edna-Star was applied to the whole area retrospectively. Most of the first settlers were from Pylypow's home village of Nebyliv and the area was sometimes called the Nebyliv colony in their honour, although later settlers were from other areas of Austrian-controlled Ukraine, namely the provinces of Galicia and Bukovina.
The location of the new settlement was chosen partly because of the existing Galician German settlement nearby at Josephburg. Ukrainians in Galicia were used to working with their German neighbours in the "Old Country" and many could speak some German. For new settlers, having a place to earn cash wages until their farm became productive was also extremely important, and the Germans were the logical place to turn. Another prime concern of the settlers was timber. This part of Alberta is part of the aspen parkland biome, a relatively heavily wooded area compared to the prairies further to the south. To the surprise (and sometimes consternation) of Canadian authorities, the Ukrainians were willing to sacrifice time and effort to clear the land, and would even take lands of poor soil quality in order to secure treed land. This was because there was a severe wood shortage in Austrian Ukraine, and peasants became reliant on the pan (landlord) for the precious commodity, used in making all manner of tools and buildings. In Canada one could receive 160 acres (65 ha) of forested (or prairie) land for free under the Dominion Lands Act .
By 1914 the zone of Ukrainian settlement stretched for 110 kilometres (68 mi) from Edna-Star in the west to Slawa in the east and approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) from Smoky Lake in the north to the outskirts of Mundare and Vegreville in the south. [2]
Many of the non-Ukrainian immigrants to the area, also came from the Austrian crownlands of Galicia and Bukovina where the Ukrainians originated. These included Poles, Romanians, Germans, and Jews.
Today the area known as the Kalyna Country ecomuseum, which preserves and showcases Ukrainian Canadian culture. It is also home to the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village which contains pioneer buildings from all across the area.
At one time within the boundaries of the settlement block, up to 80% of the population was of Ukrainian origin.[ citation needed ] However, internal migration within Canada has changed the patterns. As well, since Statistics Canada has allowed people to claim "Canadian" as an ethnic origin only since 2001, figures are not comparable before and after that date.
According to the 2006 Census, in Alberta census division 10 there were 6,700 people who claimed to be single-origin Ukrainian (the largest of any ethnic group, excluding "Canadian") and 17,130 people who claimed some Ukrainian origin out of a total population of 85,155, giving approximately 20% of the population. In Division 12 there were 3,575 who claimed to be Ukrainian single-origin and 11,220 total claiming some Ukrainian origin out of 59,305, for around 19% of the population.
Ethnic origin statistics are not available for many of the municipalities with the most concentrated Ukrainian populations, because Statistics Canada does not publish this information for communities with a total population of less than 5,000 for privacy reasons. Rural-to-urban migration has reduced the populations of Lamont County, Thorhild County, the County of Two Hills No. 21, and the County of Minburn No. 27 below this threshold. The counties for which there are statistics that have the highest proportions of total respondents claiming some Ukrainian origin are the County of St. Paul No. 19 (26%), Sturgeon County (18%), Beaver County (16%), the Municipal District of Bonnyville No. 87 (17%), and the County of Vermilion River (16%). [3]
Other than Ukrainians, the largest responses in this area are French (especially near Bonnyville and St. Paul), German (especially near Josephburg), Native Indian, and Metis, with smaller number of English, Scottish, and Irish, and some Romanian, Polish, Russian, Jewish, and Norwegian.
In the three largest towns in the region the percentage of the population claiming some Ukrainian origin were: Vegreville 44%, (5,720) St. Paul, 31%, and Bonnyville, 18%. Other towns and villages thought to have large Ukrainian populations include Myrnam, Willingdon, Lamont, Mundare, Andrew, Chipman, plus numerous hamlets and rural communities.
Bukovina is a historical region in Eastern Europe. The region is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided between Romania and Ukraine.
The Heim ins Reich was a foreign policy pursued by Adolf Hitler before and during World War II, beginning in 1936 [see Nazi Four Year Plan; Grams, 2021]. The aim of Hitler's initiative was to convince all Volksdeutsche who were living outside Nazi Germany that they should strive to bring these regions "home" into Greater Germany, but also relocate from territories that were not under German control, following the conquest of Poland, in accordance with the Nazi–Soviet pact. The Heim ins Reich manifesto targeted areas ceded in Versailles to the newly reborn state of Poland, various lands of immigration, as well as other areas that were inhabited by significant ethnic German populations, such as the Sudetenland, Danzig, and the southeastern and northeastern regions of Europe after 6 October 1939.
Chernivtsi Oblast, also referred to as Chernivechchyna (Чернівеччина), is an oblast (province) in western Ukraine, consisting of the northern parts of the historical regions of Bukovina and Bessarabia. It has an international border with Romania and Moldova. The region spans 8,100 square kilometres (3,100 sq mi). The oblast is the smallest in Ukraine both by area and population. It has a population of 890,457, and its administrative center is the city of Chernivtsi.
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, also known as Austrian Galicia or colloquially Austrian Poland, was a constituent possession of the Habsburg monarchy in the historical region of Galicia in Eastern Europe. The crownland was established in 1772. The lands were annexed from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as part of the First Partition of Poland. In 1804 it became a crownland of the newly proclaimed Austrian Empire. From 1867 it was a crownland within the Cisleithanian or Austrian half of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. It maintained a degree of provincial autonomy. Its status remained unchanged until the dissolution of the monarchy in 1918.
Carpathian Germans are a group of ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe. The term was coined by the historian Raimund Friederich Kaindl (1866–1930), originally generally referring to the German-speaking population of the area around the Carpathian Mountains: the Cisleithanian (Austrian) crown lands of Galicia and Bukovina, as well as the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and the northwestern (Maramuresch) region of Romania. Since the First World War, only the Germans of Slovakia and those of Carpathian Ruthenia in Ukraine have commonly been called Carpathian Germans.
Ukrainian Canadians are Canadian citizens of Ukrainian descent or Ukrainian-born people who immigrated to Canada.
The Duchy of Bukovina was a constituent land of the Austrian Empire from 1849 and a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary from 1867 until 1918.
Nestor Dmytriw was a Ukrainian Catholic priest, author and translator, born in Utishkiv, Ukraine. Shortly after his ordination by Metropolitan bishop Sylvester Sembratovych in 1894, he came to the United States in 1895 and settled in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania. In the US, he quickly became involved with missionary work and journalism through the Jersey City, New Jersey, paper Svoboda.
Dr. Joseph Oleskiw or Jósef Olesków was a Ukrainian professor of agronomy who promoted Ukrainian immigration to the Canadian prairies. His efforts helped encourage the initial wave of settlers which began the Ukrainian Canadian community.
The Germans of Romania represent one of the most significant historical ethnic minorities of Romania from the modern period onwards.
Iwan Pylypiw or Ivan Pylypow was one of the first Ukrainian immigrants to Canada in 1891–93, along with Vasyl Eleniak.
A block settlement is a particular type of land distribution which allows settlers with the same ethnicity to form small colonies. This settlement type was used throughout western Canada between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some were planned and others were spontaneously created by the settlers themselves. As a legacy of the block settlements, the three Prairie Provinces have several regions where ancestries other than British are the largest, unlike the norm in surrounding regions.
The Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village is an open-air museum that uses costumed historical interpreters to recreate pioneer settlements in east central Alberta, Canada, northeast and east of Edmonton. In particular it shows the lives of Ukrainian Canadian settlers from the years 1899 to 1930. Buildings from surrounding communities have been moved to the historic site and restored to various years within the first part of the twentieth century.
The Kalyna Country ecomuseum is a heritage and eco-tourism district in East Central Alberta, Canada, named after the highbush cranberry plant, pronounced (Ka-lyn-na) in the Ukrainian language. The Ukrainian folklore states: "Without Kalyna, there is no Ukraina".
The Bukovina Germans, also known and referred to as Buchenland Germans, or Bukovinian Germans, are a German ethnic group which settled in Bukovina, a historical region situated at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe, during the modern period. They are part of the larger group of Romanian Germans since the early 20th century, when they were initially living in the Kingdom of Romania.
Michael Luchkovich was a Canadian politician. He was the first person of Ukrainian origin to be elected to the Parliament of Canada.
Ukrainian Brazilians are Brazilian citizens born in Ukraine, or Brazilians of Ukrainian descent who remain connected, in some degree, to Ukrainian culture.
The Josephine colonization was a state-funded settlement campaign organised under the rule of Joseph II in the 1780s, in the then-new crownland of the Austrian Empire, Galicia, and to a lesser extent, in Bukovina. The colonization reinforced the societies of Galician and Bukovina Germans.
The Wolf Lake Metis Settlement is a former Métis settlement in Alberta, Canada, located within the boundaries of the modern-day Municipal District of Bonnyville No. 87 and Lac La Biche County. Established under the 1938 Metis Population Betterment Act as a relief measure for the province's impoverished Métis people, the wooded Wolf Lake settlement supported a population of 58 settlers in 1940. However, it was withdrawn in 1960, causing its Métis inhabitants to disperse.
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