The Stories

Chantal Kreviazuk is an internationally respected, Juno award-winning singer, songwriter, and musician. She splits her time between Los Angeles and Toronto, but was born in Winnipeg, originally from a Manitoba farming community. She's proud of her prairie heritage, and hopes her investigation into her family's background will uncover the truth about her rumoured First Nations ancestry and also reveal the source of her musical and creative spirit.

Chantal starts her search with her father's side of the family-the Kreviazuks-visiting her great Uncle Steve in Winnipeg to learn more about her great grandfather Nicholas Kreviazuk. Nicholas arrived in Canada from Ukraine with his wife Annie Uskiw in 1906. Steve remembers Nicholas as being a physically diminutive man with a nervous laugh. He shows Chantal a picture of "Little Gigi", as Nicholas was known to friends and family.

Nicholas was part of a wave of Eastern European immigrants who arrived in Manitoba from 1891-1920. Many were fleeing the enforced peasantry of landowners in Ukraine while others came to Canada in search of religious freedom. In an effort to settle the west, the Canadian government offered Ukrainian immigrants 160 acres of farm land in Manitoba for only ten dollars. But the overseas passage from Ukraine was difficult; many died from Typhoid fever. In Canada, life was very tough for these new citizens. Men often worked other people's farms as well as their own just to put food on the table.

Back to top Page 1 | 2 | 3 | Next