25 years of helping hands
by Margaret Tessman
For the USCC Ladies Cultural Interpretive Society, it’s all about community. The Union of Spiritual Communities of Christ is the largest Doukhobor organization in Canada. It continues to support the core values of the Doukhobor faith, and works to retain traditional values, Russian heritage, language and customs. When my children were young, students could attend Russian language class at the local elementary school, and the borscht dinners at the community hall were not to be missed. Russian continues to be the language spoken and sung at Doukhobor meetings, weddings and funerals.
Eileen Kooznetsoff has been the chair of the Cultural Interpretive Society, a subgroup within the USCC, since its inception in 2000. The women’s group shares a small building adjacent to the Brilliant Cultural Centre on the outskirts of Castlegar with the Doukhobor men’s group that builds caskets. When the men outgrew their original shop space, the women came on board and partnered with them to build on the site.
Two groups of up to a dozen women, mostly retirees, meet twice a week, on Monday and Wednesday mornings. Another group of women, mostly young mothers, meets on Wednesday evenings. “I would like to see the focus on the future, how we can attract more volunteers, as volunteerism in general is declining,” says Kooznetsoff. “We welcome all helping hands.”
In both small and larger ways, helping others and responding to community needs is a key aspect of Doukhobor history and culture. When the Doukhobor people moved to Canada in 1899, they settled on the Prairies in communal villages where families and individuals worked to support the greater community. When many moved to B.C. the sense of community remained prevalent. “Humanitarian work is an extension of a helping community,” says Kooznetsoff.
The extent of the projects that the Cultural Interpretive Society takes on is extraordinary. As well as running their own gift shop, the ladies consign sewn and knitted goods to the Doukhobor Discovery Centre gift shop and participate in Christmas craft fairs. The aprons worn by the cooks at the annual September borscht cook-off sponsored by the Discovery Centre were sewn by CIS volunteers. They sew quilts as Christmas gifts for each new Kootenay-Columbia Learning Centre student, for refugee families settling in the local area as a “Welcome to Canada” and for others in need such as the homeless and women’s shelters. The community is generous: much of the fabric used by the CIS volunteers is donated, with fashion fabric in excess of needs sold at a discount to the Stanley Humphries Secondary School sewing class. Fabric is also donated to the Samaritan’s Purse organization for its Christmas Shoebox project. The ladies have created art quilt wall hangings for the Selkirk College Mir Centre for Peace and the Indigenous Gathering Place classroom. “When folks come to us and share stories of people in need we ask, ‘What can we do? How can we help?'” says Kooznetsoff.
The Bread, Salt and Water embroidered tea towels and potholders are a popular in-house hospitality design and CIS best sellers.
Photo: Allison Horkoff
As well as donated goods, the society receives funding from Regional District Area I for some materials. Starting about 10 years ago, the society created a digital archive of traditional vintage Doukhobor clothing and textiles such as shawl embroidery, woollen quilting and weaving. “The traditional fibre arts have fallen by the wayside, but people are still finding things in trunks,” says Kooznetsoff. According to its website, the society “recognized a need to start documenting existing fabric artifacts so that information about our rich culture can be shared with generations that follow.”
You can find more information about the society on its website, doukhoborcis.org. The site is a “work in progress,” says Kooznetsoff, but shows some of the work being done to preserve traditional Doukhobor fibre art skills. The website sums up the society’s purpose well: “Our ultimate goal is to promote peace and friendship as we embrace members from the larger Castlegar community, regardless of ethnic origin or spiritual affiliation. We all strive toward a common goal of working together in harmony through sharing and learning.”
