Maydanyk's Memories: A Juxtaposition of Time and Space

Abstract

Written nearly a century ago, Вуйкова книга [Uncle’s Book] (1930) by Jacob Maydanyk embodied the collective memories of early Ukrainian settlers on the Canadian prairies. It was Maydanyk’s graphic memoir, and over the years, time was unkind - the book of comic strips became a collection of forgotten immigrant voices, tucked away on dusty shelves and in broken boxes - until now. I was compelled to study Maydanyk’s collection because of our shared Ukrainian heritage and profession in the arts. I was also curious as to the positioning of this comic book in the canon of comics creation in Canada. I wondered how it came to be and its significance as a body of collective memories of early pioneer experiences and Canadian comics creation. This dissertation represents an interdisciplinary approach to gathering, and sharing Maydanyk's tangible and intangible memories that lead to the creation of Uncle’s Book. The theory of the dérive and psychogeographical observation facilitated contextualizing the information and uncovering new insights into the artist’s past. As research-creation, the approach involved a temporal journey through the streets of Winnipeg, MB and the backroads of Manitoba, coupled with an exploration of old and new media to create a website -The Maydanyk Digital Archives -connecting a generation of digitally savvy scholars with collective memories from the past. I found Maydanyk’s stories timeless – born in the past but still relevant today and worthy of our attention.