Monthly Archives: March 2017

It is mostly a 1,057-page paper copy of the Alberta Estonian Heritage Society’s heritage website content, with some added material.

In 2018 the Republic of Estonia will be celebrating its 100th birthday. For this jubilee year, the Estonian Maritime Museum will be opening an exhibit at the Seaplane Harbour on February 23, 2018 about ships that have been related to significant Estonian historical events on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

In fall of 2016, senior researcher of Lithuanian Studies Department at the National Library of Lithuania, Dr. Dalia Cidzikaitė, took part in a web documentary on contemporary migration “La Crise Migratoire et Nous” (in French and Lithuanian) created by French Institute in Lithuania.

The Lithuanian Writers’ Association (LWA), established at the Faculty of Humanities of the Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas on February 21, 1932, is the first independent organization uniting Lithuanian writers, translators, literary researchers, and critics.

Linked below, you will find the Winter/Spring edition of the Baltic Heritage Network quarterly newsletter. 

On March 6, a Ph.D. student from the University of Glasgow, Gintarė Venzlauskaitė, stopped at the National Library of Lithuania to talk about her research, entitled “From the post-war West to the post-Soviet East: manifestations of deportations, collective memory and experience of Lithuanian diaspora.”

On March 15th VEMU hosted visitors from the University of Toronto to celebrate Mother Tongue Day held on Kristjan Jaak Peterson’s birthday. The theme for the evening was “Mõtelda on mõnus, rääkida on raske” (Easy to Think, Hard to Speak), which was highlighted by Marju Toomsalu, the long-time Estonian language instructor at the University of Toronto, which brought along her students to read Hando Runnel’s poetry. Following her students’ presentation, Marju spoke of her experiences teaching Estonian in a multicultural classroom, which included examples of how confusing the Estonian language can be not only to learn, but to teach as well. The lucky audience was treated to a concert featuring music written to Hando Runnel’s texts performed by VEMU&Friends. This newly formed ensemble included: Paul Kiilaspea, Kati Kiilaspea, Toomas Heinar, Laani Heinar, Vincent Teetsov, Piret Noorhani, and Viive Sarv. The audience was invited to sing along with the final song of the evening “Maa tuleb täita lastega.” See photos from the event here Piret Noorhani

This year we will be celebrating 10 years since the first BaltHerNet summer school. For this occasion we will be going back to where we started — to the Koke Guesthouse.

The exhibition is put together by Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, as well as Latvian and Estonian communities in Chicago (curator Irena Chambers). On March 9, the exhibition was opened in Arlington, Virginia.

Through photos, documents and life stories, Sharing our Stories: The Baltic Diaspora at Home in Canada profiles the age-old story of people forced to leave their homeland due to war and political oppression and start a new life elsewhere. This exhibit is based on a series of interviews with seniors from Ontario’s Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Baltic German communities.