Barry's Bay 1975 , Mask Island, Kaszuby Canada, Ontario

[00:00:19][music] [music] [music] [music] >> Barry's Bay.

[00:00:45]It's about 100 miles northwest of Ottawa.

[00:00:48]And at first [music] glance, it looks like many another Ontario town.

[00:00:52]But if you look a little closer, you can see a difference.

[00:00:56]>> [music] [music] >> The language is Polish.

[00:01:14]And it's being spoken by the descendants of pioneer farmers who started coming to this area from Poland more than 100 years ago.

[00:01:21]>> [laughter] >> The forefathers of men like Frank Ritza, artist and sign painter.

[00:01:29]>> The reeve at that time was Paul Yakabuski.

[00:01:32]And he requested that they a crest should be made for Barry's Bay.

[00:01:37]It was the first one that I made, really. And uh I was as commissioned to do this coat of arms.

[00:01:45]The village of Barry's Bay is made up of 76% Polish.

[00:01:49]And of course, we couldn't overlook the Irish segment here. And so, there is a Polish white eagle.

[00:01:57]and the uh Irish harp.

[00:02:05]>> The first Polish settlers came in 1859.

[00:02:07][music] 14 farmers and their families, 57 persons in all.

[00:02:13]Here in the [music] wilderness of the Madawaska Valley, they found hills and lakes that reminded them of their native province of Pomerania.

[00:02:20]And here the government gave each family 100 acres of free land.

[00:02:25]In 1860, another 22 families [music] came.

[00:02:28]And in the years that followed, there were more and more.

[00:02:33]>> [music] >> Besides Polish immigrants, there were also settlers from Ireland. And there was sometimes friction between the two groups.

[00:02:45]But eventually, this diminished and the Poles and the Irishmen often worked side by side as lumberjacks [music] in the great forests of white pine.

[00:02:55]During the heyday of lumbering here [music] in the 1890s, the Ottawa Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway was pushed through the woods to carry lumber south to American markets.

[00:03:06]Today, the ruins of a roundhouse that once served this railway remain as a relic of another era.

[00:03:18]>> When I was teaching at the high school in Barry's Bay before I moved out here to the farm, um like I wanted to know something about the people I was going to be living amongst.

[00:03:30]So, I got a a club going, uh a Polish studies club essentially.

[00:03:35]In a way, of course, I did it for myself, you know, because I wanted to find out all about the the history of these people, you know, because I'd be living amongst them probably for the rest of my life.

[00:03:44]>> Barney McCaffrey is an American folk singer who came to live here a few years ago.

[00:03:49]He bought a farm and it's one of the places where classes are held by a free school for children of the area.

[00:03:57]>> And being of course that uh I was uh part Polish, you know, like on my mother's side, and uh part Irish, which is just beautiful for the area around here.

[00:04:09]We finally did a program on Polish Independence Day on the 3rd of May. We got different exhibits of Polish history and that, and it was just beautiful, but of course a lot of the kids just some wouldn't get into it cuz they're afraid of being, you know, ashamed of dancing or something like that. They felt sort of ashamed of uh bringing up the as one girl said to me, the whole old Polish-Irish crap, you know, and uh I I understood what they meant because, you know, coming from the States myself, where they sort of played down this whole uh uh your whole cultural background, your whole racial stock and that, you know, you were to be part of the melting pot, you know, and to me that was one of the reasons why there's an awful lot of unrest and dissension and uh people don't really feel satisfied They don't know who they are in the States because they never realized that they have a background outside of where they are right now, you know.

[00:05:12]>> On his mountain farm, Martin Rakowski still tills the land in the traditional way without modern machinery.

[00:05:20]In many ways, this farm could be the Poland of the 19th century.

[00:05:24]At the time when Rakowski's grandfather emigrated to Canada.

[00:05:37]>> What's big farmer?

[00:05:38]>> Oh, all kinds of machines.

[00:05:42]We have no machines.

[00:05:44]>> Who is the biggest farmer around?

[00:05:46]>> Oh.

[00:05:48]Ziemowit Wawrzyniak.

[00:05:58]>> [laughter] >> How is it you speak English?

[00:06:01]>> And Martin doesn't.

[00:06:02]>> He can't speak English.

[00:06:04]>> He can't?

[00:06:06]And you can?

[00:06:06]>> I can.

[00:06:08]Little bit, not much.

[00:06:09]>> Why?

[00:06:10]>> I [laughter] don't know. I wasn't in the school and he wasn't in the school either.

[00:06:14]There was no schools that time when we were born.

[00:06:17]>> Well, you said you went to school.

[00:06:19]>> No, just two days at three, that's all.

[00:06:21]>> That's enough.

[00:06:22]>> Yeah.

[00:06:23]I just learned myself yes or no.

[00:06:27]>> [snorts] >> That was all.

[00:06:29]>> There is no electricity on this farm, no running water, no television, no telephone.

[00:06:35]Rakowski could easily afford modern conveniences, but this is the way he prefers to live.

[00:06:41]>> Yes, he is.

[00:06:41]>> They say Martin Martin can speak English when he goes to the bank.

[00:06:47]>> [laughter] >> You no need to speak there English. You can just just show the check and he can give you the money. That's all.

[00:06:59]>> Rakowski's son, Ambrose, also lives on the farm with his wife and daughter.

[00:07:04]And he will eventually inherit it.

[00:07:08]There are no other farmers around here quite like Martin Rakowski.

[00:07:12]And among Polish Canadians in the area, there is great admiration for the way he carries on the old traditions.

[00:07:28]>> Okay.

[00:07:30]Oh boy, that sun is hot.

[00:07:33]>> Dr. Andrew Chapesky is also descended from Polish immigrants.

[00:07:37]But he's very different from Martin Rakowski, the farmer down the road.

[00:07:40]>> You weren't? Although proud of the traditions he has inherited, Dr. Chapeski is fully integrated into the mainstream of Canadian life.

[00:07:49]>> It gets me fishing the way back in the bush country Northern Quebec. It gets me up to Northern Ontario fishing. It gets me hunting in places that you can't get to unless you fly.

[00:08:01]I should say I do a lot of fishing these days in Quebec.

[00:08:04]>> One tradition that Dr. Chapeski shares with many others of Polish descent is a love of flying.

[00:08:11]Poles have always been deeply involved in aviation.

[00:08:14]And around Barry's Bay there seem to be more people who fly as a hobby than in most other towns of this size.

[00:08:32]>> You're now looking at Barry's Bay International.

[00:08:36]Uh I bought it I bought the property I should say about 1968 somewhere 1968.

[00:08:46]Now we're in the process of forming a flying club at Barry's Bay and we do need a licensable runway. So I've had to uh build a second one and uh running a little bit more northerly with better approaches on each end.

[00:09:01]>> This is what you do here?

[00:09:04]Hey, that's the one I saw there.

[00:09:05]>> Yeah, that's the one.

[00:09:06]>> Winnie Burket is maintenance man for the local hospital.

[00:09:10]And he too has the Polish addiction to aviation.

[00:09:13]>> Yeah, that's terrible. That's terrible job. I wouldn't tell anybody I did it.

[00:09:16]>> But it's not so >> No, it's good.

[00:09:19]>> She was a total wreck the plane.

[00:09:22]I just got a cut on my forehead, but the pilot had few broken bones, but we were very lucky we come out of it, but I still intend to fly again and I have about 16 hours since the accident.

[00:09:36]The yellow plane, that's the same type as I'm building and they call it the Maranda. And this is the wheeler on for the wings. It's all finished and ready for inspection.

[00:09:50]And this here is the elevator for my tail section.

[00:09:59]The next is the stabilizer which it's all finished, too.

[00:10:06]The reason I can't finish it is I have a beautiful family and nine children and I feel that the children come first. So, when my family grows up and time permits me and money, I'll start back at it.

[00:10:26]>> The Polish love of flying.

[00:10:28]It extends to exotic pastimes well beyond the simple airplane.

[00:10:33]>> The kite will fly naturally by by itself. It'll fly nice and straight.

[00:10:38]Okay? You can let go with your hands.

[00:10:40]You can do anything you want and it'll fly nice and straight.

[00:10:43]The whole trick is to keep this bar level.

[00:10:56]>> That was good flying though. You know coming down here and you're riding up the oscillation. But that one was just a little too strong.

[00:11:01]>> Zawadzki Zurakowski >> Let me put him in his leading for English.

[00:11:07]>> Oh yes.

[00:11:08]It has occasion quite frequently confused people.

[00:11:12]Uh at the CNE they call us the fine flying Irish boys.

[00:11:34]I'm pretty my father's one person I've never been able to coax into a kite. Uh can't quite figure it out. I thought it'd be one of the bugs that would uh catch on quite quickly, but no.

[00:11:43]Right now.

[00:11:45]>> Mark's father, Janusz Żurakowski, was once one of Canada's leading test pilots.

[00:11:50]The man who put the controversial Avro Arrow through its paces.

[00:11:54]>> Just after the war, I had a uh I was in test pilot school, Empire pilot school in England. And then uh as a civilian, I joined the Gloster Aircraft Company, when we were developing at the time the fastest jet aircraft, Meteor, which set twice world speed record.

[00:12:15]I moved to Canada because uh I had experience in the type of the uh plane which uh Canada was building at the time.

[00:12:29]>> Żurakowski's test pilot days lie behind him.

[00:12:33]Now, he operates a small resort [music] hotel in an area that has long been popular with summer vacationers.

[00:12:39]This area near Barry's Bay is called Kashuby, named after that region in Poland where the first settlers came from.

[00:12:47]>> [music] >> The architecture here is often distinctively Polish.

[00:12:53]For most [music] of the summer cottages are Polish Canadians from Toronto and Ottawa.

[00:13:06]>> [music] >> Summer camps for Polish Boy Scouts and Girl Guides from Toronto.

[00:13:13]They're supposed to speak Polish during their stay here.

[00:13:16]But, it doesn't always work out that way.

[00:13:29]>> Yay!

[00:13:32]>> [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] >> Stan and Isabella and Frank Legowski are frequent visitors to the Kashubian area.

[00:14:20]For many years now, they've been arguing about how Polish culture can best be preserved. And just what constitutes Canadian culture.

[00:14:28]>> Stan, the first time that I met you it was uh what, about 25 years ago?

[00:14:35]>> 26.

[00:14:36]>> 26.

[00:14:37]And you are the editor of the competitive newspaper.

[00:14:41]And you are violently attacking everything that I stood for in editorials in my newspaper.

[00:14:50]Związkowiec at that time, Polish Alliance, sir, was the newspaper of the group that decided to settle in Canada. They started to treat Canada as their own country.

[00:15:05]And Poland for them was just a sweet memories or something that they loved, just like you love your mother, but when you um organize your own family, it's your own family is most important. and for this for >> for us Poland was still a reality and very sad and tragic reality. You you you have remember that and uh we didn't come here as as immigrants. We came here as political refugees uh with dreams of going back to Poland.

[00:15:43]I would say that Kashuby in a way is a substitute for a trip to Poland. So, Kashuby helps us to meet to feel our sentimental needs and we Poles we are sentimentalists.

[00:15:57]>> In Kashuby, the Franciscan fathers operate a youth center.

[00:16:01]And here during the summer open-air masses are held on Sundays mainly for Polish Canadian summer visitors.

[00:16:27]>> [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] >> Look, I'm not trying to impose my Polish culture on my children. I'm I'm trying giving them an opportunity. It's up to them to decide. Because listen, even those Polish kids here, their culture is not really Polish.

[00:17:20]They're kidding themselves. They have certain certain elements of the Polish culture. And sometimes what's important for parents if is of at least importance to the children. And sometimes children pick up certain elements which I which are very negligible to the elder generation. I know it's it's a natural process and I don't have any doubts that there is a number of cultures.

[00:17:46]After all, we don't have an official culture in Canada. The Canadian culture is sum of all those cultures.

[00:17:53]>> There would be no need for a multicultural policy in Canada and unless there were large groups of people who who were staying to their old old land cultures which are neither from the British Isles nor from Quebec because you can't say that France has any influence in this country in my opinion.

[00:18:09]>> But also maybe as well.

[00:18:11]>> But being a Canadian being a Canadian is speaking English and doing exactly >> It's not.

[00:18:16]It is.

[00:18:17]>> Being a Canadian is not speaking English.

[00:18:19]>> But it's also speaking English and doing everything but also keeping your heritage. That's what being a Canadian is.

[00:18:25]>> If you want to keep your heritage if from Poland you're going to have to keep your Polish language because without your Polish language you have no means no means to understand the real root of 1 and 1/2 thousand years of history because only a thousand years of Christian history.

[00:18:42]>> Yeah, I've met a few people that don't speak Polish and still consider themselves of Polish descent.

[00:18:47]>> And they read about the Polish history and they think it's interesting.

[00:18:49]>> You can yourself to be Polish but not >> Of extraction. They're Canadian but they're Polish extraction and they're proud of it. They're doing something about it. I think that's possible.

[00:18:57]>> Remember those two negro girls that were standing on the stop at the Dundas West Subway station and they were talking in Polish because the high school had just started a Polish language and one girl was saying to the other, "I'm really sorry I couldn't take Ukrainian as well." And she was saying all of this in Polish.

[00:19:13]>> I mean that's I think really typically Canadian. I think that's uh >> Well, it's changing now.

[00:19:17]>> Poles are are are moving from the pick and shovel people, you know, the dumb uh nietota niepisota, you know, the ones who can't read and write to to to a higher bracket of of of intelligence and education, you know, like our image in Canada is changing, you know, that that this this the Polak with with a bottle of beer >> Look, >> and the Polish joke Polak is slowly going up.

[00:19:39]>> Yeah.

[00:19:40]I had to fight a few battles uh physical you know, fights and so forth because I was Polish and uh for no other reason.

[00:19:48]>> Well, I think that's for anybody's problem.

[00:19:49]>> And and I think personally that the climate in Canada for Polish uh Canadians was a lot lot tougher 15 years ago.

[00:19:58]>> In Canada, obviously, we are a nation of people that have come here.

[00:20:02]>> Uh well, I don't think >> And uh I don't think we're a nation. I I think it's going to happen in the future.

[00:20:07]>> Sure. Sure we're a >> I I don't think we're a nation at all.

[00:20:10]>> It was my dream in my in my life when I said that Canada could be example for the world. For the world.

[00:20:20]Not for the judge. No, I am Don't call me philosopher. I am a pragmatist.

[00:20:27]>> The culture is everything.

[00:20:28]>> It's a framework.

[00:20:29]>> No, the culture is everything. It's a behavior of the man.

[00:20:34]>> Frank, for Pete's sake, why do you shout? You still shout like in the old days that are 25 years ago.

[00:20:40]>> Could you Could you pipe down a little bit?

[00:20:43]>> Adam Mickiewicz Juliusz Słowacki >> In Barry's Bay, in response to local requests, Professor Tadeusz Kukowski of the University of Ottawa gives a summer course in Polish literature.

[00:21:10]>> Now, all three were political immigrants. At least they spent practically the entire span of their creative life abroad, away from Poland. And this is an important thing about Polish romantic literature.

[00:21:28]It is also important to note that this literature, created and written abroad by these three men three men and others, has influenced the developments, literary, cultural, and even political developments within Poland, within Poland divided between the three occupiers, between Austria, Prussia, and Russia.

[00:22:14]>> The land, the farmhouse, and everything in it is up for sale.

[00:22:19]For many of these Polish Canadian farmers, the rocky soil here is becoming less and less viable as a livelihood.

[00:22:26]And so they sell out and move into town.

[00:22:29]But there are new kinds of farmers coming out this way and buying up the old properties.

[00:22:34]Young men and women who want to escape from the cities and find a more simple way of life.

[00:22:45]While some of the Polish farmers are selling out, others are determined to stay.

[00:22:51]One of these is Raymond Mask.

[00:22:54]>> All the whole island is mine, except a few cottages don't belong to me.

[00:23:01]I did dairy farm some years ago, but with short of help, I had to quit and start in just ordinary farming.

[00:23:11]The younger generation all going to the cities and it's just impossible for them to stay at home with the wages they've been getting.

[00:23:22]I have four girls and five boys.

[00:23:25]The way the things have changed for the past 25 years, I think they're going to go out to the city.

[00:23:35]But I hope that some of them would continue farming.

[00:23:56]They've been always with me since they able to walk.

[00:24:03]Straighten them how to do little carpentry work and little farming.

[00:24:10]Gives them a good experience of work here.

[00:24:14]And uh where they where you teach them yourself, they know know just how hard the work is. When they grow up, they'll know understand what's work.

[00:24:41]>> [laughter] >> Can you see if you can get it out in the knee? Do you know who that big hole is?

[00:24:46]So somebody can see your face?

[00:24:49]A little bit?

[00:24:50]Yeah, it's full of air.

[00:24:53]>> Well, that's definitely light.

[00:24:55]You have to straighten that thing.

[00:24:57]I'll get the bacon.

[00:25:13]>> The wedding is taking place on Raymond Maske's Island farm.

[00:25:17]And the bride is Maske's daughter, Susan.

[00:25:35]>> My dear friends in Christ, as you know, you're about to enter into a union which is most sacred and most serious.

[00:25:44]A union which was established by God himself.

[00:25:47]By it, he gave to man a share in the great work of creation, the work of continuation of the human race.

[00:25:54]And in this way, he sanctified human love and enabled men and women to help each other live as children of God by sharing a common life under his fatherly care.

[00:26:07]>> I, Stephen, >> I, Stephen, >> take you, Susan, >> take you, Susan, >> for my lawful wife.

[00:26:13]>> for my lawful wife.

[00:26:14]>> I, Susan, >> I, Susan, >> take you, Stephen, >> take you, Stephen, >> for my lawful husband.

[00:26:19]>> for my lawful husband.

[00:26:25]>> You got a soft seat. Just put your shoulders up and not bear everything.

[00:26:31]>> You want to eat?

[00:26:32]>> No, I want him to put the Let them sit in on the table because I'm ready.

[00:26:43]Well, where's Daddy?

[00:26:45]>> How much of the old culture from Europe survives in this community?

[00:26:50]In the wedding and the festivities that follow, we see a certain amount of it.

[00:26:54]But the Canadian aspect is much more pronounced.

[00:26:58]Yet enough remains that is distinctively Polish for this part of Ontario to have a flavor all its own.

[00:27:05]A flavor it has had for more than a century.

[00:27:12]>> Look, Frank, these mushrooms here No, you will not tell me that mushrooms from the from the woods are part of Canadian food.

[00:27:20]>> Who's in?

[00:27:20]>> I I They are not yet.

[00:27:21]>> I give you some of these mushrooms.

[00:27:23]>> Yes, they are not yet. And that is the part of the Canadian culture now because of the Polish contribution to the Canadian culture. Period.

[00:27:34]>> [music] [singing] [music and singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing] [music] [singing and music] [music] [singing] [singing and music] [singing] [music] [singing and music]