Stefan Pawluk, Toronto.
On March 8, 2016, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) held a conference for students entitled From Remembrance to Action: Exploring Upstanders Facing Difficult History and their Importance in Today’s World, with the support of the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium (of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta), ALPHA Education, Facing History and Ourselves, the Sarah Corning Centre for Genocide Education, and the Aboriginal Education Centre and Social and World Studies & Humanities department at the TDSB.
The conference, which was held at Central Technical School, is the second such conference to be held by the TDSB. This year, HREC Director of Education, Valentina Kuryliw was invited to be one of the organizers of this event. This is the first time that the Ukrainian community had the privilege of being a part of this annual event and were able to recommend panelists and speakers for the conference. The event was an opportunity for students “to examine how a deeper understanding of diverse histories can enrich the choices they make as active global citizens and further develop a passion to engage in current social justice issues,” as described by the TDSB.
The conference, attended by 201 students and 12 teachers, explored the role of “upstanders” – people who choose to take positive action in the face of injustice in society or in situations where individuals need assistance. The event began with a panel that included journalist Andrea Chalupa and educator Valentina Kuryliw, Director of Education at HREC, who discussed their own involvement in standing up for human rights. Other panelists included Flora Chung of ALPHA Education, an organization that focuses on human rights abuses during WWII in the Pacific theatre, and writer Tanya Senk of the Metis/Cree/Anisihinaabe. The panel was moderated by Leora Schaefer, Director of the Toronto office of Facing History and Ourselves.
Following the panel, students and teachers attended two of eight workshop offerings. Four workshops were sponsored by HREC Education and the Holodomor Education Committee, of UCC, Toronto: “Go Viral for Human Rights” and “Can Food be Used as a Weapon in Genocide?”
In the workshop “Go Viral for Human Rights,” Andrea Chalupa used the example of the Euromaidan Revolution in Ukraine of 2014 and her creation of a Twitterstorm to demonstrate how one upstander can generate global interest in a human rights topic. She advised students working in groups on how to generate international cyber interest around issues they care about by creating their own Twitterstorms.
The second workshop featured the Holodomor Mobile Classroom of the Holodomor National Awareness Tour. The lesson, “The Historian’s Craft,” created by Valentina Kuryliw, was held aboard the Holodomor Mobile Classroom, a bus transformed by state-of-the-art technology into a 21st century learning space. After viewing a brief video, students were organized into groups to consider questions about the Holodomor by examining primary artifacts such as photos, letters, documents and survivor accounts.
The event ended with reflections from students, who said they were grateful to learn about genocide in general and the Holodomor in particular – an event they had known little or nothing about – and that they felt empowered to confront human rights abuses, regardless of where they occur. All in all, it was a very successful day for both students and presenters.
Stefan Pawluk is an assistant to HREC Education Director
Share on Social Media
