“Run
Nawrocki Run: Escape from Banff Prison”: Norman Nawrocki’s
Ongoing Creative and Learning Process
 |
Norman Nawrocki in character
as Prisoner #158 with his shovel PHOTO CREDIT: Joyce Valbuena
|
The
Internment of Ukrainians during WWI took place in Canada due to
legislation which was passed on August 22, 1914. It was known as the
War Measures Act and gave the
Governor in Council
extraordinary powers, “during
time of war, invasion, and
insurrection, real or apprehended [feared].” The
Cabinet would be able to pass laws without going through the
Parliament, technically, Canada’s lower house, commonly known as
the House of Commons, or just the commons.
One
of these
powers was was
for “arrest,
detention, exclusion and deportation.” It
was that effected so many Ukrainians and others who
were feared by
the
government of the the day. “Approximately
80,000 people had to register as “enemy aliens” and were
compelled to report regularly to the police. Their freedom of speech,
movement and association were also restricted” ["Ukrainian
Internment in Canada." The
Canadian Encyclopedia.
Historica Canada. Article published May 24, 2018; Last Edited June
05, 2018.]
Throughout
my university years in the 1980s academic papers began to appear on
the subject of internment. I followed these and
there
were other mediums
telling the story of many who had become victims due to the War
Measures Act.
During the Second World War it was used to intern Italians, Japanese
and
German Canadians and I lived through implications of the this act as
a young boy seeing troops in combat gear and heavy military vehicles
on the streets of
Montreal
during the October
Crisis
in 1970.
Last
Meeting
and
Reconnect
While
studying and working at McGill University in the late 19980s and
early 1990s I met many
different people.
One of them was Norman Nawrocki, originally from Vancouver but
living in the student ghetto in
Montreal when we met.
At
the time I recall Nawrocki had told me that he was just discovering
his Ukrainian roots. It had been the Ukrainian Students’ Club at
McGill which had brought us together. We had gotten together a few
times at club meetings and afterwards socially. I stayed in touch
with him until the summer of 1991 and they lost contact with him for
over three decades. Often the alliteration of his name, first and
family, would pop into my head and I would think: “I wonder where
Norman Nawrocki
is today?”
On
December 2nd
of this year an announcement from a common friend of ours, I found
out that he was leading a very active and creative life. So I reached
out to him as
he had been CC’d
in the email I received.
A few days later I
asked him when we last
saw one another he wrote me: “We
met on June 25th, 1991. I found a piece of paper with notes I took
during our meeting, references to the "UCC (Ukrainian
Canadian Congress)
Parliamentary Interns, the Uke Info Bureau in Ottawa, ... and
Przenechaya,
the Ukrainian Wheat Vodka.” I’m a bit of an archivist!” Hence,
I was not surprised to see just how prolific Nawrocki has been when I
received the notice about his one person play entitled “Run
Nawrocki Run: Escape from Banff Prison”, and
some of the thought-provoking works he has produced and published in
the past.
From
the announcement and link to the Facebook event I’d been sent, I
learnt “Nawrocki
has written, staged & toured over 20 theatre & cabaret
creations since 1986, authored 14 books of poetry, short fiction &
a novel (with translations in French & Italian), & released
over 60 albums of music & spoken word, solo & with his
diverse bands.”
I
think his self-proclaimed being “a bit of an archivist!” Has
served him well in his creative endeavours.
I
had pitched this story idea to The Ukrainian Weekly, and wrote it but
it never ran, as we know that everyone is very closely following
events in Ukraine.
From
Saturday December 11th @ 9am EST until Friday December 17th, 9pm EST
his one person play will be available on his YouTube channel for
free: https://bit.ly/3oy0tvO
.
The trailer is already available on his Facebook [
www.facebook.com/norman.nawrocki
]
and YouTube pages.
Learning
More About Nawrocki
I
contacted
Nawrocki to learn a little more about him, his rediscovery of his
Ukrainian heritage, his creative process, accolades and
the intrinsic reason of why he wrote this
play, the music and performed together with his sister Vivian.
Uamuzik:
Norman,
you and I met many years ago before Ukraine's independence. We often
discussed some of our personal histories, though at the time I
believe you had really only started to discover your roots. When and
how did it all begin?
As
a child, I learned that I was Ukrainian (and Polish), but that I
should never
speak about it because I might be discriminated against. This had
been the experience of my mother growing up Ukrainian-Canadian in
Manitoba. So, I hid my Ukrainian self, and only explored it on annual
family visits with my mother’s family in rural western Manitoba.
This had been the experience of my mother
growing up Ukrainian-Canadian in Manitoba. So, I hid my Ukrainian
self, and only explored it on annual family visits with my mother’s
family in rural western Manitoba.
We
were never part of the ‘Ukrainian’ community growing up in
Vancouver; only our so very distant Manitoba family one. We were
never encouraged to learn or speak Ukrainian, because it was
considered more important for us to simply blend in and be accepted
by ‘white people, the English,’ as my mom would say.
Many,
many years later, I realized it was time for me to honour my culture,
to honour my family, and to honour myself by exploring my Ukrainian
roots. This was prompted by music – re-discovering the
Ukrainian-Canadian music I had grown up with as a child, hearing at
Manitoba family functions and occasionally sung and played at home by
my Mom. By 1985, I had formed a ‘cabaret rock ’n roll' band in
Montreal. As a violinist, I wanted to learn how to play this crazy,
wild, magical Ukrainian folk music that was buried somewhere deep
inside me. Melodies that would play in my head. Tunes that I knew but
didn’t know. I started to dig out old family LPs, I transcribed the
music, and learned how to play Kolomeykas, Arkan
and more. And I realized, this was a big part of who I was.
I
wanted to know more. So I started doing the research, interviewing
family members, reading about Ukrainians in Canada, Ukrainian
history. I visited the Ukrainian gifts and books shop on Boulevard
St-Laurent in Montreal, buying bargain old LPs,
newer cassettes, and even Ukrainian plates and bowls to place on my kitchen table. I had none of this stuff growing up.
 |
Norman and his sister Vivian Nawrocki,
in Vancouver, BC.PHOTO CREDIT: a passing stranger :)
|
I
learned the music, shared it with my band members, and we recorded
it, released it, and toured Canada, the US and Europe with it, and
met people who wanted to know, ‘what is this crazy, wild, totally dance-able music you are playing for us, we love it!’ We played it
in Montreal for St-Jean Baptiste Day celebrations, and local
Quebecois people went nuts over it, demanding more.
I
kept reading: ‘Men in Sheepskin Coats;’ ‘The Ukrainians in
Manitoba;’ ‘The Ukrainian Canadians, A History;’ Ivan Franko’s
short stories, etc.
This
rediscovering my roots process continues to today, 2021.
Uamuzik:
Your
works are base on a great deal of personal experience, reflection and
contemplation. What drives your process?
I
want to know more and I want to share what I know, what I consider
significant, valuable, worth knowing, with others. If I decide to do
a play based in history, I do a lot of background research, online,
library books, interviews with those who know more. Once I have all
the facts, I pour them into the sifter/blender and push the start
button. I attempt to discover the focal point, the essence, the core
spirit for the work, and do the ‘onion thing,’ but backwards: I
construct the onion from the centre out, adding layers, but being
selective: this is creative, this is engaging, this belongs, fits in
this piece. This doesn’t. This can be discarded or set aside for a
future longer work. This has to go back into the blender, and be
reconsidered.
I
fill notebooks with ideas, lines, visions, then review, review,
review, write, write and re-write.
The
script for my current Banff play, for example, has gone through about
20 revisions, 20 versions easily, maybe more.
Uamuzik:
How
do you react to commentary of Canadian playwrights like David
Fennario about your earlier productions?
It
is so heartwarming, so gratifying, so humbling to hear someone like
the great Canadian playwright, David Fennario, praise my work. Even
more humbling when he follows that up asking me to act in one of his
plays! I was thrilled to read his comments. I am such a scattered
artist – I do many things – I write, I compose, play & record
music, I act, I publish poetry, short stories, a novel, I produce
shows, I tour with my work – I am a bit of this, a bit of that.
Someone like David is an accomplished playwright. I’m a guy who
likes to write, perform and produce plays. So when someone of his
stature says something about my work, it’s inspiring, really
inspiring. But it’s also equally heartwarming to hear the words of
others in the audiences, of people I don’t even know who thank me
for sharing the stories, the history they never heard of, never
learned in school.
Uamuzik:
As
a story teller I am always fascinated by the process of others. When
you uncovered this personal history, how did it hit you?
It
hit me in the gut: three possibly distant family members were
imprisoned and forced to do slave labour by Canada simply because they
were poor, unemployed and Ukrainian? Like WTF? I had heard so many
stories growing up about the endless prejudice, discrimination and
outright racism that older family members endured when they came to
Canada and tried to "fit in,” to just lead ordinary lives like
other Canadians. I heard about the jokes, the slurs, the second class
treatment on the job, if they could get a job, the attempts to change
their accents, their names, their way of being to try to be more
‘white, more English,’ knowing they could never wash out the
‘Bohunk’ tattooed onto their skin, their tongues, their
mannerisms, their way of living.
I
heard about my relatives always dealing with lying, cheating, abusive
bosses, because they were considered ‘just dumb Ukrainians,’ good
for nothing but hard labour, always underpaid.
I
heard about these forced labour camps, about being forced to report to
the Mounties.
So
I did the research and uncovered the truths, the hidden history, the
repressed stories, the pain and suffering that my own family members
lived with, and now, these distant family members probably suffered
as well, only it was more intense behind the barbed wire prisons for
them.
It
made me sad and angry, but also inspired me to tell their stories, to
tell this story as best I could with the means I have : words, music, theatre, visuals. I wanted to honour their memories, their struggles,
their hopes and dreams for a better life. This was what my ancestors
always wanted when they came to Canada, it’s why they came here,
like so many other immigrants, yesterday and today: for a better
life. They didn’t deserved to be treated like dogs. None of them.
