Noted Ukrainian Canadian community organizer and award-winning film and television industry journalist Sabrina Rani Furminger expands her activism this week with the launch of her latest project, Ukrainian Roots Podcast / Подкаст «Українське коріння», a celebration and exploration of what it means to be Ukrainian.
In the Ukrainian Roots Podcast / Подкаст «Українське коріння», the experienced interviewer combines her innate curiosity and passion for conversation with her interest in building an essential bridge between diaspora Ukrainians, displaced Ukrainians, and Ukrainians in Ukraine.
The biweekly, English-language audio podcast launched in the final week of September with two episodes. “Episode One: A Displacement Story” finds Sabrina in conversation with Khrystyna Syvolap, the displaced Ukrainian filmmaker who arrived in Vancouver in spring 2022 (https://www.
Subsequent episodes will feature conversations about navigating Kremlin propaganda, the Ukrainian propensity for dark humour, diaspora identity, the impact of the war on mental health, and the role that bread plays in Ukrainian culture.
“I come from a long line of Ukrainian Canadian activists, but it’s only been since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that I’ve realised that my skills as a journalist can serve our people,” says Sabrina, whose family—the Kiperchuks, Kostaszeks, Merchuks, and Krasnodanskas—built the Ukrainian Labour Temple in Lachine, Quebec in the first half of the 20th century.
“I want Ukrainians to listen to this podcast and feel connected to Ukrainians all over the world. I want us to take pride in the qualities that define us as Ukrainians. And I want us to confront tough issues together: the erasure of our language; the perceived or actual gulf between diaspora Ukrainians, displaced Ukrainians, and Ukrainians in Ukraine; the impact that the war is having on our mental health; how artists are processing the war; the havoc that contemporary and intergenerational trauma wreaks on our bodies and relationships.”
Listen to the Ukrainian Roots Podcast / Подкаст «Українське коріння» on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and the Ukrainian Roots Podcast site: http://www.
