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« 2023. # 4 (172)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2023. № 4 (172), 1134—

UDK [930.25:39](=161.2:71)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/nz2023.04.1134

COLLECTOR OF UKRAINIAN-CANADIAN FOLKLORE JOAN MARGEL

HRYMYCH Maryna

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7028-4879
  • PhD (History), professor,
  • The Ivan Honchar Museum National Centre of Folk Culture,
  • 19, Lavrska str., 01015, Kyiv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: hrymych@gmail.com

Abstract. The purpose of the article is to introduce information about the Canadian collector of Ukrainian-Canadian folklore, Joan Margel into scienсe, that is, to reveal a case of collecting practice that is quite rare for Canada, the subject of which is not a professional researcher affiliated with a certain institution, but a private person, an independent collector. Her collecting activities focus on the territory where she spent her childhood and youth – the village (later the town) of Rycroft, located in the so-called Peace River Country (Alberta, Canada). This is the northern limit of the settlement of Ukrainians in Western Canada. Unlike the densely populated area of Ukrainians in East-Central Alberta, this is an understudied region in Canadian Ukrainian studies.

The materials of the amateur researcher are of considerable interest, which shows the relevance of the research. In that area, Ukrainians did not live compactly, but cross-striped, so it has its own cultural local specificity. The object of the research is the collecting activity of Joan Margel, and the subject of the research is various branches of the Ukrainian-Canadian culture of the farming suburbs of the 1920s-1960s, collected through interviews with the so-called old timers and covering such topics as pioneer homesteading and farming, calendar and family rites, customs, old time and blue grass music, etc.

The article was written based on the materials of the Joan Margel Foundation in the Bohdan Medvidsky Archive of Ukrainian Folklore of the University of Alberta (Canada), which is co-organized by the author of the article, as well as based on the materials of other archival collections and an interview with the recorder. The research methodology is based on the complex involvement of various methods, principles and concepts.

Keywords: Joan Margel, folklore collectors, Ukrainian-Canadian folklore.

Received 21.06.2023

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