BaltHerNet’s summer school titled “Diaspora Estonian Cultural Heritage Abroad. XI. My Estonian Roots” takes place in Setomaa at Värska from June 26-29th. Since Setomaa is known for its knowledge of traditions and unique, strong identity, we chose the theme of this year’s summer school, identity, and roots, accordingly. Topics such as researching family genealogy and names, ways to preserve your family history, mapping of tombstones, and family, as well as regional heritage, will be discussed and explored. We will introduce collections related to the theme from Estonian and diaspora archives.

It’s unclear whether the well-known saying “May you live in interesting times” istruly a curse that stems from the Chinese or whether it has been attributed to themby the British.

The spring edition of the Baltic Heritage Network quarterly newsletter is now available. In these pages, you will find information about our past and future events, new publications, and what is happening across the globe within the diaspora research and archive communities.

Starting from March 7th Estonian Public Broadcasting TV-channel ETV2 is broadcasting an 8 week specialty show examining the various aspects of exile Estonian life. The documentary series is based on a wide archive of home videos which were given to the production team by Estonians all over the world. The program is called “8mm elu” (8mm of life) and it airs every Tuesday at 21.30 Estonian time, also has repeat slots and will be viewable on the public broadcasting streaming site jupiter.err.ee

2023 has been deemed the year of movement by the Republic of Estonia’s Ministry of Culture. In that light, VEMU’s program reminds people that a healthy body means a healthy mind and soul. On January 22nd, we had a screening of the 1959 Soviet-era Estonian film “Mischievous Curves,” which tells a surprisingly propagandafree tale of a love triangle and motoracing. The film is well-known amongst those who have grown up in Estonia, yet for most local Estonians, this was a new viewing experience.

The first Estonian Music Week took place in May 2018 in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia. This festival has now become VEMU’s greatest cultural event throughout the year. To date, three full festivals have taken place (2018, 2019, and 2021), many concerts and tours by renowned Estonian artists, and much more. The latest of these endeavours was helping bring the Estonian-Ukrainian band Svjata Vatra on a Canadian minitour in February 2023. The concerts took place in Guelph, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, Niagara Falls, and in various venues around Toronto.

Travelling has become possible and popular yet again, and so VEMU/ Estonian Museum Canada has already had many great guests at the beginning of 2023.

At the outset, when the work of the Canadian Latvian Archive and Museum (KLAM) was recognised and formally named, it was possible to take advantage of the fact that the founder was also President of the Latvian National Federation in Canada (LNAK). Thus it was possible to use this opportunity to link the two and market the idea as a viable community project. This linking raised the profile of both entities, while the marketing aspect continued to be of great importance.