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John Miska's Pages - Miska János oldalai
A
Hungarian-Canadian Renaissance
Hungarian studies in
Canada have flourished throughout the decades. They received a substantial
boost as a result of the influx of the post-World War II “Displaced
Persons” and the 1956 refugees. Both of these immigration streams included
a great many Hungarians with high educational achievements. In the
meantime important political developments were taking place in Canada. The
final report of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
(1963-71) contained a volume on The Cultural Contribution of
Other Ethnic Groups (1969). It recommended federal support for the
maintenance of immigrant minority cultures in Canada. The suggestion was
accepted by Ottawa. In 1972 a minister responsible for multiculturalism
was appointed and the following year the Multicultural Directorate was
established within the Department of the Secretary of State. In time, such
multicultural policies were also adopted by several of Canada’s provinces.
Encouraged by these developments, Hungarian-Canadian organizations redoubled efforts at
cultural maintenance. Their perseverance led to the establishment of such
cultural institutions as the Chair of Hungarian Studies at the University
of Toronto, which was followed in time by the founding of the Hungarian
Research Institute as an ancillary of the same university. The
Hungarian-Canadian Authors’ Association (headquartered at the time in
Ottawa) and the Hungarian Studies Association of Canada (Toronto) were
other products of this period, as were a number of literary societies,
choirs, folk-dance groups and stage organizations in cities such as
Winnipeg, Vancouver, Hamilton, London, Montreal and elsewhere. Several
literary and cultural magazines also started publication, including the
Canadian-American Review of Hungarian Studies (now Hungarian
Studies Review) (Kingston and Toronto), the Tárogató
(Vancouver), the Szigeti Magyarság (Victoria), the Krónika
and Tanú (Toronto), and the Magyar Népmûvészet Kanadában
(Edmonton). The majority of these are still publishing today. According to
our records, close to 200 newspapers, periodicals, cultural and
denominational papers have been published in Canada from the beginning of
the twentieth century.
Hungarology has enjoyed
wide interest among Anglophone and Francophone Canadian scholars and
students. During several decades of research, I have come across dozens of
university graduate theses devoted to Hungary and Hungarians. The four
volumes of my bibliography Canadian Studies on Hungarians
(1987-1998) contain more than 2,500 references, and this figure does not
include a large number of relevant essays and review articles published in
newspapers and in-house forums.
Canada has been generous
to its immigrant people. It has provided fertile soil for the cultural
activities of immigrant Hungarians as well. The “Biography” section of my
bibliography mentioned above contains about 60 biographical summaries,
which is only a fraction of the Hungarian-Canadian university teachers,
researchers in scientific and technical fields and the private sector who
have made remarkable contributions to their professions. Furthermore, my
book: Literature of Hungarian Canadians (Toronto, 1992) registers
close to one hundred Hungarian-Canadian authors of books of poetry,
fiction and drama, published in Hungarian, French or English during the
last four decades. This number does not include the ones, and there are
quite a few of them, who published their work only in newspapers,
periodicals and anthologies. The Hungarian-Canadian Authors’ Association
has published eleven anthologies since 1968. It sponsored the publication
of several private collections of poetry and fiction, and organized
literary events throughout Canada. Since its inception, the Hungarian
Studies Association of Canada has participated in the annual conferences
organized by the Canadian Learned Societies and published a series of
monographs by its members.
Although
in recent years the Hungarian-Canadian community’s publishing output has
not matched that of the 1970s and 1980s – owing to Canada’s economic
adversities and the resultant decline in government support for and
diminishing interest in matters ethnicity – it is hoped that the field of
Hungarology will continue to survive and Hungarian Canadians, along with
the other cultural minorities of Canada, will continue to find ways of
preserving their identity.
John Miska
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