Historians of Their Own Lives: Okanagan and Settler Ukrainian Women's Cross-Cultural

139 Pages·2013·1.83 MB·English

Historians of Their Own Lives: Okanagan and Settler Ukrainian Women’s Cross-Cultural
Relationships during British Columbia’s Colonial and Industrial Development

by

LaVonne Kober

B.A., University of British Columbia Okanagan, 2010

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL
FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE DEGREE OF

Master of Arts

in

THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES

(Interdisciplinary Studies)

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

(Okanagan)

September 2013

© LaVonne Kober, 2013
Abstract
This thesis examines cross-cultural relationships between Indigenous Okanagan and
settler Ukrainian women who lived in Vernon and Head of the Lake areas of British Columbia
during the province’s colonial and industrial development in the early 1900s. The lived
experiences shared by female participants in this project challenge the dominant historical
narratives that have traditionally overlooked women’s lived experiences. Women’s histories are
retrieved from the silence and invisibility of omission to fill in gaps in the literature concerning
cross-cultural relationships between Okanagan Indigenous and settler Ukrainian women. In
conceptualizing the histories of these women this thesis argues that the processes of colonization,
largely influenced by male Eurocentric perspectives, have negatively impacted the development
and maintenance of female cross-cultural relationships. Using Indigenous methodologies and
research approaches that honor and respect Indigenous perspectives and worldviews, I embarked
on individual interviews with two older Okanagan and two older Ukrainian women from Vernon
and Head of the Lake areas. Throughout the interviews it became evident that the intersections
of race and gender prejudices were deeply embedded within the colonization processes of BC.
These affected how Okanagan and Ukrainian women lived their lives individually and in relation
to each other. A narrative analysis of the oral histories of Okanagan and Ukrainian women
offers a study of the situations of Indigenous and immigrant European women in the early
twentieth century in the Northern Okanagan. Through the use of oral interviews, archives, and
narrative analysis this thesis explores how colonialism and the dominant culture influenced the
significance of and the extent to which female cross-cultural relationships occurred during BC’s
colonial and industrial development.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iii
List of Figures ......................................................................................................................v
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ vi
Dedication ......................................................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................1
1.1 Research Beginning and Interests ..........................................................1
1.2 Contemporary Identity of Okanagan First Nations Peoples and
Influential Indigenous Intellectuals........................................................6
1.3 Historical Backdrop Okanagan First Nations Peoples ...........................8
1.4 Historical Backdrop Ukrainian Settlers ...............................................13

CHAPTER 2 Literature Review.......................................................................................22

2.1 The History of History Making............................................................23
2.2 Indigenous and European Settler Women on the Frontier of British
Columbia ..............................................................................................32
2.3 Recent Inclusion of Indigenous Women’s Stories to British
Columbia’s Historical Archives ............................................................38

CHAPTER 3 Methodology and Methods ........................................................................44

3.1 Participatory Action Research .............................................................47
3.2 Storytelling ...........................................................................................49
3.3 The Four “Rs’ ......................................................................................50
3.4 Researcher Reflexivity .........................................................................53
3.5 Narrative Analysis ...............................................................................54
3.6 Personal Statement of Limitations .......................................................55
3.7 Project Design ......................................................................................57

CHAPTER 4 Rosie’s and Nancy’s Oral Histories ...........................................................60

4.1 Chapter Overview ................................................................................60
4.2 Rosie’s Story ........................................................................................61
4.3 Nancy’s Story.......................................................................................69

CHAPTER 5 Analysis and Exploring Narratives ............................................................79

5.1 Geographical Location .........................................................................82
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5.2 School and Education ..........................................................................91
5.3 Church and Religion ............................................................................96
5.4 Work and Food Acquisition .................................................................98
5.5 Collaboration and Exception ..............................................................104
5.6 Lydia’s Story ......................................................................................105
5.7 Theresa’s Story ..................................................................................107

CHAPTER 6 Concluding Chapter and Recommendations for Future Work ................111

BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................124

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List of Figures

Figure 6.1: Map of British Columbia .......................................................122
Figure 6.2: Map of Vernon and Area .......................................................123

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Acknowledgements
I would like to sincerely thank Nancy Medynski (Kury), Lydia Price (Rudiachy), Rosie
Jack, and Theresa Dennis for agreeing to participate in my project and for willingly and openly
sharing their lives by telling their personal histories and stories. Our time spent together has not
only provided me important tools to understand the intersections of Okanagan and Ukrainian
intercultural contacts in Vernon, and how these impacted my own social identity, but also taught
me lessons that have added to the richness of my life. Their oral histories and memories have
contributed to the inclusion and depth of women’s history in British Columbia and specifically
intercultural relations between Indigenous and immigrant European women.
I thank my family. First and foremost, I thank my life partner and best friend, Conrad,
who has endured countless hours of listening (sometimes forced) to my ideas, epiphanies, and
sometimes difficult frustrations. Conrad’s unwavering support and inspirational insights
contributed greatly to this project. To my children, Sean, Jeff, and Vanessa, I thank you for your
support and patience.
I owe gratitude to faculty members who have deeply influenced my graduate experience.
I thank, with sincere gratitude, my supervisor, Dr. Margo Tamez, for her mentorship, guidance,
and wisdom, and her understanding demeanor that has seen me through a few trying
circumstances. Special thanks are owed to my committee members, Dr. Jeanette Armstrong and
Dr. Robin Dods. Through her teaching Dr. Armstrong enlarged my understanding of Indigenous
perspectives, methodologies, and methods leaving me with invaluable insights in which to frame
this project. Dr. Dods offered incredible academic and administrative support for which I will be
forever grateful. Lastly, I express appreciation to Dr. Lawrence Berg for teaching the Graduate
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Proseminar course in which I learned much about being a graduate student. I am grateful for Dr.
Berg’s teaching methods which allowed students to respond to material and discussions within
the parameters of their own unique learning and participation styles

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Dedication
For all the Okanagan and Ukrainian women whose stories have never been heard the way
they deserve to be, and to my family, past, present, and future members.
viii
1 Introduction
1.1 Research Beginnings and Interests
My interest in recovering the life stories of elder Okanagan and settler Ukrainian women,
who have lived their lives in the areas of Head of the Lake and Vernon, British Columbia during
the late 1800s and early 1900s, was initially ignited while studying Gender and Women’s Studies
with Dr. Margo Tamez at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. While exploring
feminist thought in reference to communities, societies, and nations pertinent to Indigenous
peoples, I explored relationships between Indigenous women and white settler women during
British Columbia’s early colonial and industrial development. My research revealed gaps in the
historical narrative specifically concerning the lives of Okanagan women from the Head of the
Lake and Ukrainian immigrant women. I noted particularly an absence of information regarding
their histories and their experiences in relation to one another across the traditional literature.
Much of the documented history of Head of the Lake and Vernon, British Columbia is
characterized by white male European authorships and perspectives. Personal reflection on my
own ethnic Ukrainian background and social relations with an Okanagan child generated
curiosity about how my own conceptions of race and ethnicity were shaped through adults’ inter-
relations in places such as Vernon and the Head of the Lake. I found very little information on
Ukrainian historical narratives of Ukrainian women who experienced the immigration process
and journey from Ukraine, to the Canadian prairies, and finally to British Columbia. Knowing
that Okanagan women and settler Ukrainian women lived in close geographical proximity, I was
curious if female cross-cultural relationships existed during the colonial and industrial
development of British Columbia. My research efforts uncovered little information about the
existence of cross-cultural relationship between Okanagan women and settler Ukrainian women
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in the areas of Head of the Lake and Vernon BC during the early 1900s however, my findings in
local archives revealed the importance of the gendered dimensions of history construction,
colonization, industrialization and the marginalization of Indigenous and ethnic European
women’s voices, experiences, and perspectives.
As a third-generation Ukrainian immigrant my family’s history has passed down from my
mother to me about the experiences of my ancestors prior to, coming to, arriving, and being in
Vernon in the early 1900s. As non-English speaking immigrants, their stories reflect many
aspects of living in this area as a non-dominant group. Their specific views have never been
given the attention they deserve in British Columbia’s historical archives. At the same time, the
Okanagan women at the Head of the Lake have also passed down their histories to their sons,
daughters, grandchildren, and extended family members. Their perspectives which draw upon
distinct and integral relationships with the Okanagan as their indigenous homeland have
experienced extreme marginalization in the history of the region and British Columbia. As both
groups of women lived in close proximity to one another during the early 1900s, my interest lies
not only in the personal histories that women from Ukrainian and Okanagan peoples may tell,
but also in exploring how gendered and racialized factors of colonialism affected Okanagan and
settler Ukrainian women’s cross-cultural experiences. Would the stories of women hold the
answers to this question? Would the oral histories of women living during British Columbia’s
colonial and industrial development in the early 1900s reveal encounters in contact zones such as
home-based economic spaces, schools, or meetings in church? If so, what significance did
women place on these cross-cultural relationships, if indeed they did exist?
While referring to the history of British Columba R. W. Sandwell said,
Within the grand narrative of modernization that continues to define history,
the story of the last two hundred years is told as the transition from rural to
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