Our team members recently participated in a conference that took place in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, from June 13-15, 2024. The conference, organised by Ukrainian Oral History Association, was held at the premises of and with the support of Uzhhorod National University, the Transcarpathian Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of the Transcarpathian Regional Council (Uzhhorod, Ukraine), in cooperation with the Hutsulyak Chair of Ukrainian Culture and Ethnography and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada), and with the informational support of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (Kyiv, Ukraine).
Our team’s goal and contribution to the conference was to emphasize that oral histories of Ukrainian Roma forced migrants during the full-scale invasion are an integral part of the oral histories of Ukraine. There is a particular responsibility to recognize them as such, due to the historical experiences of Romani marginalization and persecution during previous wars and conflicts.
Our team members—Ignacy Jóźwiak (moderator) and panelists Monika Szewczyk, Elżbieta Mirga-Wójtowicz, Tetiana Storozhko, Markéta Hajská, and Krisztina Kulcsar—presented their accounts on Romani transnational mobilization in support of Ukrainian Roma refugees in Czechia and Poland, as well as experiences of being internally displaced and of leaving Ukraine.
We are in awe of the work of researchers and documentalists who are collecting oral history accounts from and within Ukraine, and we are happy and privileged to be able to contribute by bringing in Romani oral histories.
The conference’s program is available at: https://app.groupize.com/e/d4567b#agenda_day_3
