Ukraine artist Olenka Toroshenko preserves culture on the Fringe

A Ukrainian-Canadian artist’s Adelaide Fringe show tells of her homeland’s fight to preserve its culture against Russian forces.

Ukrainian-Canadian artist Olenka Toroshenko will perform at the Adelaide Fringe. Picture: LALA.photo

For Ukrainian-Canadian artist Olenka Toroshenko, the Russian invasion of her homeland is a fight to preserve the very culture which is at the heart of her new Adelaide Fringe show.

“To me this war, although completely unprovoked and unwanted by the Ukrainian people … is a fight for the Ukrainian language and culture and identity,” Ms Toroshenko said.

“So much of what my show is about is the importance of cultivating this language, of maintaining my mother tongue, of maintaining my cultural identity.”

Ukrainian-Canadian artist Olenka Toroshenko, who now lives in Mount Barker Summit, will perform her show I Am Root at the 2022 Adelaide Fringe. Picture: LALA.photo

Ms Toroshenko’s show, I Am Root, opens at The Mill on Angas St in the city on Tuesday, March 1 and runs until March 6.

“Speaking the Ukrainian language, even in Ukraine now, is still an act of cultural and spiritual activism,” she said.

While her immediate family now live in Canada, Ms Toroshenko still has extended family and friends across Ukraine, where most have escaped major cities to the villages, or to the western part of the country.

“Some of my family is in a bomb shelter in Kyiv, with their six kids, and I’ve got other family that I don’t have contact with … I don’t know where they are,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion.

“Very few of my family line have survived the famine/genocide in 1932-33, or survived the Second World War … we are holding on to the last of our line that has survived this recurring oppression by Russia.”

Ukrainian-Canadian artist Olenka Toroshenko, who now lives in Mount Barker Summit, will perform her show I Am Root at the 2022 Adelaide Fringe. Picture: LALA.photo

Ms Toroshenko, 32, grew up in Canada, moved to Australia in 2018 and settled in the Adelaide Hills when the pandemic broke out in 2020, to be near her partner’s family.

Her Fringe show is a mix of Ukrainian folk traditions, song, dance, cooking and spoken word poetry, which covers subjects ranging from gardening to racism.

“It’s a combination of all the skills and experiences that I’ve collated in my life … it’s me trying to tell a story and use every possible medium I can.”

adelaidefringe.com.au