To mark the 30th anniversary of the renewal of diplomatic relations between Canada and Lithuania, Richard Martin-Nielsen of the Embassy of Canada to Lithuania opened the “Sharing our Stories” exhibition at the President´s Valdas Adamkus Library-Museum in Kaunas on August 26.
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 the Second World 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. Their personal ‘snapshot stories’ shed light on what it means to be Baltic, and on the universal experiences of migration and settlement.
The exhibition was produced by the Baltic Canadian Imprints group. BCI project partners are the Canadian Baltic Immigrant Aid Society, Museum of Estonians Abroad (VEMU), Lithuanian Museum Archives of Canada, the Canadian Latvian Archive and Museum and the Latvian National Federation in Canada). Since 2017, the exhibition has been presented in 18 different locations in Canada, Estonia and now Lithuania.