91��ĸ��Ƶ

Thursday 6 November 2025
1–2:30 p.m.
2-06 Faculty of Native Studies, Pembina Hall, 91��ĸ��Ƶ
In person event. 

Event is co-organized by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and the Faculty of Native Studies at the 91��ĸ��Ƶ.

The personal journey of Ivan Rosypskye took a new turn with the beginning of the full-scale escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022. A celebrated West Coast Indigenous master carver, Ivan had spent a lifetime seeking healing from intergenerational trauma Canadian society had inflicted on him and his Heiltsuk mother’s family. But Ivan was also Ukrainian. Although he knew little of his father’s life story (other than that he had fled Europe at the end of WWII in the wake of the Soviet occupation of Western Ukrainian lands), Ivan understood that colonial oppression and violence were neither unique to certain places nor a mere memory from the past. Partnering with Keith Carlson from University of the Fraser Valley’s Peace and Reconciliation Centre, Ivan sought to honour his Ukrainian father and ancestors in a way that would highlight the universal harms caused by colonialism. The art that emerged from this partnership signaled for the first time that Ivan felt empowered to identify as both a Heiltsuk and a Ukrainian artist.

How can one pay tribute to what one’s ancestors lived through, acknowledging and honouring the legacy of surviving colonialism’s brutal footprint? How does one make sense of and engage in discourse about the distinctive forms of colonialism that worked to dehumanize family members on different sides of the Atlantic Ocean?

Come and meet Ivan Rosypskye in person. Participate in the conversation between the Master Carver and Keith Carlson, a settler historian who has supported Ivan’s project in various ways. Watch the film that University of the Fraser Valley students produced to document Ivan’s work, with the help of many others working on this unique project, focusing on reconciliation, resilience, and Indigenous agency.

Ivan Rosypskye is a First Nations master carver of Ukrainian-Heiltsuk heritage. He has been carving since 2001, as learned from local artists in his home town of Powell River, British Columbia.

Keith Thor Carlson is a professor of history at the University of the Fraser Valley and a Tier
One Canada 91��ĸ��Ƶ Chair in Indigenous and Community-Engaged History.

Hosts
Natalia Khanenko-Friesen is a professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Arts, and director of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 91��ĸ��Ƶ.

Nara Narimanova is a PhD student with the Faculty of Native Studies and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (Faculty of Arts), 91��ĸ��Ƶ.