Silent memories, traumatic lives : Ukrainian migrant refugees in Western Australia

328 Pages·2012·7.15 MB·English

by  Lesa Melnyczuk

Lesa Melnyczuk
T is is the f rst work to tell the story
of the Ukrainian survivors who
were accepted as migrant refugees to
Western Australia af er World War II.
T e experience of these people was one
of enormous struggle where only the
strongest survived, to now f nally share
their story. By bringing their stories
together for the f rst time we begin
to understand the refugee experience
of post-war migrant Ukrainians who
settled in Western Australia. T ese
are the Ukrainians who came by sea,
hoping for safety and freedom.
Ukrainian Migrant Refugees in Western Australia
Published 2012 by the Western Australian Museum
49 Kew Street, Welshpool, Western Australia 6106
www.museum.wa.gov.au
Digital edition released 2013.
Copyright © Lesa Morgan, 2012.
Designed by Tim Cumming.
Printed by Everbest Printing Company, China.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry (pbk)
Author: Melnyczuk, Lesa.
Title: Silent memories — traumatic lives:
Ukrainian migrant refugees in Western Australia / Lesa Melnyczuk.
ISBN: 9781920843748 (pbk.)
ISBN: 9781925040029 (epdf)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Subjects: Ukrainians — Western Australia — History.
Ukrainians — Migrations.
World War, 1939–1945 — Conscript labor.
World War, 1939–1945 — Europe — Refugees.
Ukraine — History — Famine, 1932–1933.
Other Authors/Contributors:
Western Australian Museum.
Dewey Number: 305.8917910941
Publication of Silent Memories has been assisted by the
Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, the Karpaty Foundation
and the Ukrainian Studies Foundation in Australia.
Ukrainian Migrant Refugees in Western Australia
Lesa Melnyczuk
CONTENTS
PREFACE ............................................................................................................... 6
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 9
1 Te Holodomor Years ............................................................................. 19
2 Survival ................................................................................................... 90
Te birds stopped singing, the dogs stopped barking ................ .. 119
3 Life afer the Holodomor Years ............................................................ 123
DP Camp 566 — Cornberg .......................................................... 183
4 Long term efects of the Holodomor .................................................... 189
5 Manmade Famine as Genocide ........................................................... 237
Holodomor Panakhyda ................................................................. 269
6 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 273
ENDNOTES ....................................................................................................... 278
BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................. 300
ACKOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................. 320
INDEX ................................................................................................................ 322
PREFACE
In the words of Condoleezza Rice, if you have ‘the opportunity to explore the
state of human knowledge as it stands today’ you should ‘search for the truth
and … teach and enlighten those within it’.1
I am an Australian Ukrainian, born in Perth. During my childhood, I listened
to the songs, poetry, and table chit-chat of my migrant refugee parents and their
friends, as they pined for the family and homeland lef behind. I remember
talk of the Displaced Persons camps in Europe, the journey to Australia on
converted cargo ships, the migrant camps in country Western Australia, and
the hard physical work it took to build our lives in a new country. What I don’t
recall are any stories about starvation.
Looking back though, there were hints of it in our everyday lives. Leaving food
uneaten on my plate, or worse still, throwing it away, led to uncharacteristically
sharp rebukes in my home and in the homes of other Ukrainians.
As I grew up, I became aware of quiet comments, voiced only occasionally,
about the complete lack of food during childhood years in Soviet Ukraine.
Te odd mention of childhood hunger and starvation by friends at the social
gatherings that were ofen held at diferent homes. At the time, I did not
understand; it seemed absurd that we should be alive and well in Western
Australia if their words were to be believed. How could anyone survive such
horror?
My refexive disbelief when overhearing stories of famine and death turned
to disquiet over the years. As an adult, I could not push these words from my
mind as easily as I did in my childhood. With Ukraine’s independence in 1991
came a food of information. I could no longer pretend ignorance of former
lives of these Ukrainian people. My decision to base my doctoral studies on
the memories and experiences of the Ukrainian migrants to Western Australia,
came from a determination to fnally reach some understanding of what my
parents and their friends lived through.
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When I began my research, I found that as a child of Ukrainian migrants,
I was not alone in my ignorance of the events which befell my parents in their
early years. Many survivors did not share their memories with their families,
preferring to separate completely their new lives from their old, partly to protect
their children from painful truths and partly to protect themselves. In Soviet
Ukraine, giving voice to the truth about the famine years was punishable by
imprisonment or execution, and many survivors never lost the fear that they,
or any family lef in Ukraine, would sufer if they spoke out.
More than 75 years later, most of those who participated in this study still
felt that fear to some extent, but all faced it down to share the stories of their
lives with me. Tese stories are not just part of a Ukrainian history, they are
also part of the history of Western Australia, as these survivors spent their adult
years here, determined to make their new country a true home for themselves
and their families.
LESA MELNYCZUK
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