My Story

I grew up in the Ukrainian diaspora community of Toronto actively involved in the cultural and religious community life there, as well as connected to the wild and cultivated natural spaces around me. I have always been interested in spending time in the woods, wildcrafting & cultivating gardens, embracing ancestral folkways tied to the land.

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I spent the early years of my life in Thornhill, by the waters of the Don River, and on the shores of the Great Lake near Grafton, ON. I took part in Plast (Ukrainian scouting) camps in Grafton as well as all across the country. I began travelling to Ukraine and Eastern Europe in the summers while in university. I volunteered at camps for state orphans in the Carpathian mountains organised by Help Us Help the Children (a project that grew out of Children of Chornobyl), and met and visited family and hometowns I had not yet known.

Upon completion of my studies, I moved to south Moravia in the Czech Republic to teach English, and began to visit my extended family in eastern Slovakia, as well as family and friends in Ukraine. The following year I moved to Lviv in Ukraine, and taught English at the Ukrainian Catholic University. It was an extremely formative time for me, during which I fell in love with dance, village singing, and European living. I connected with folk musicians and artists that deeply inspired me (and still do :) and I kept coming back to Ukrainian Lviv. Upon returning to Toronto, I began to put down some roots and weave community with other urban "folk revivalists", formed Kosa Kolektiv with fellow Ukrainian-Canadian women in the city, and put on events and collaborated on projects with folks from the Lemon Bucket Orkestra, Balfolk Toronto & the Fedora Upside Down collective. Trips to New York led to deep bonds formed with Ukrainian Village Voices through the Yara Arts Group and Korinya folk band.

Even as I've been digging roots and planting gardens in southern Ontario I've continued travelling the world, and coming back to Ukraine, a place intrinsically tied to my heart. 

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Currently, I'm on a homestead near Wilno, Ontario, where I've apprenticed to the land and community over the last seven years, deepening my craft and devotion to the land. I currently divide my time between the Ottawa Valley, and southern Ontario.

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Over the last two decades, I've taken workshops and travelled extensively in pursuit of deeper understandings of folkways, and my own ancestors' ways, and dedicated more intention to finding my own way, true to my hybrid identity.

I offer workshops and demonstrations in traditional Ukrainian and Eastern European folk arts & crafts, share seasonal songs and rituals, and collaborate to create community ceremonies & gathering spaces.

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