Symposium Sharing Our Stories: Born in Canada
On Saturday, November 11th at 2pm at Tartu College, the Baltic Canadian Imprints partnership will be hosting a symposium titled Sharing Our Stories: Born in Canada. Members from all four Baltic communities, Baltic German, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian, will be discussing the challenges and advantages of being first generation Canadian Balts. A panel of first generation representatives from each of the communities will be sharing their experiences with the audience. Special guest Dr. Jaak Rakfeldt (PhD, LCSW), Professor of Social Work at Southern Connecticut State University, will be speaking. Dr. Rakfeldt is also the Coordinator of the Co-occurring Disorders (mental health and substance use) and has over fifty publications and conference presentations dealing with mental health and substance use issues as well as with ethnic identity matters.
The Baltic Canadian Imprints partnership is made up of the Canadian Baltic Immigrant Aid Society, VEMU/Estonian Studies Centre, Lithuanian Museum Archives of Canada and the Canadian Latvian Archive and Museum (Latvian National Federation in Canada). This group has been working together since 2016 and created the exhibit Sharing Our Stories: The Baltic Diaspora at Home in Canada opened in March 2017, which profiles the age-old story of people forced to leave their homeland due to war and political oppression and start a new life elsewhere. This exhibit is based on a series of interviews with seniors from Ontario’s Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Baltic German communities. Their personal 'snapshot stories' shed light on what it means to be Baltic, and on the universal experiences of migration and settlement. An online PDF version of the exhibit can be found on the VEMU website (www.vemu.ca) and on the Lithuanian Museum Archives of Canada website (www.lithuanianheritage.ca).
The Sharing Our Stories: Born in Canada symposium is a continuation of the group's work together and is open to everyone. The symposium will be in English. Please R.S.V.P. By November 6th to Piret Noorhani, or 416-925-9405.
