Well yesterday/today I definitely experienced more of Kyiv and Ukraine than ever before. The morning started ‘normally’ enough with a conference addressed by the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska. I was the guest of the Ukraine Institute for the annual International Cultural Diplomacy Forum. Through tight security I was settled in a subterranean conference room alongside international diplomats, ministers of the Ukrainian government, NGOs, and an array of creative and cultural leaders.
From 10 to 5pm I enjoyed the phenomenal skill of two bilingual interpreters allowing me full comprehension of the Ukrainian speakers, and an occasional change of aural experience when some speakers delivered in English.
The First Lady spoke eloquently about language, and the power of the arts to create images which are themselves the language of emotion, getting across resilience and truth without explaining. She talked of the importance of culture in the Restoration and Return as the Country moves forward. The return of heroes, the return of abducted children, the restoration of the cultural understanding of this amazing Country. She talked of the healing of the wounds of cultural humiliation inflicted on Ukraine across generations of invaders.
Later I learned of the visual museum of stolen art, a project working with UNESCO and Interpol which has identified 50,000 items which have been pillaged, and many sold on the black market. I learned of the amazing collaboration with the V&A in London to highlight some treasures of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (monastry of the caves) now displayed in London exploing both the culture and the colonisation of the city. 2160 cultural landmarks have been damaged and 13m items of cultural significance damaged or destroyed in the course of the Full Scale Invasion (since 2022). Not to mention the 1/3rd of all published books held in warehouses ready for sale and distribution.
As well as case studies we also heard from passionate artist/philosophers like Artem Chapeye who explored how artists can speak in very different ways than diplomats about the world as they see it. They can be strident. Like so many he is a pacifist who still has to fight – for his Country and the future of his children’s homeland. In his exploration of his tours of many countries he especially highlighted the welcome he received from the Netherlands where his audience and those he met offered ‘a warm bath’ of understanding. A vitally important ally.
As the day progressed we heard examples of international cultural collaboration with France, with Indonesia, and across the global university sectors. I sat next to a new diplomat from Romania, and met a city leader from nearby Chernihiv who told me of the restoration of their damaged theatre with the help of the UK.
I will say that arriving at this conference was the most nerve wracking thing I have done in my 3 visits to Ukraine. It made me far more anxious than the two red alert air raid warnings and my hours in the subterranean shelter below my hotel this morning. I find networking when I am a guest overwhelming. Especially where most people know each other, and most are chatting away in a rich language I have no grasp of.
The day concluded with the offering of 3 awards especially focussed on language. Two were for the Crimea-Tartar language which is an ancient Turkic language at risk of disappearing following the years of deportations and invasions since 1944. The Ukraine Institute established the Hvylya / Dalğa Prize first to acknowledge dedicated work by individuals teaching around the world, but also to begin a programme of work, especially for Crimea-Tartar, to increase demand for its use in the media and subtitling, but also the infrastructure for it to be taught and available in print.
I was reflecting on the early resurgence of Cornish, and the steady work to ensure Welsh and Gallic are widely available and taught as well as celebrated as languages of Great Britain. As one speaker said these are not language echoes of the past, but also the voice of the future.
[pause in typing for 1 minute silence daily at 9am]
The UK winner of one of the awards, a celebrated teacher based at St Mary’s London, celebrated the rapid expansion of the need and the desire for Ukrainian language teaching. In 2022 there were 20 teachers in her network – there are now 300. The winner from Alberta University talked of it being seen, 15 years ago, as a legacy language and now students are making choices related to their careers and business, to study Ukrainian.
Last night on my way to the shelter I was carrying Charlotte Higgins Ukrainian Lessons and a Dutch business-man spotted the cover and asked to take a photo of it. He told me he was starting to take Ukrainian lessons in order to do richer/deeper business in this extraordinary Country.
One delegate reflected to me, wondering about my level of fear in visiting Ukraine at this time, that Kyiv was a current front line. I am grateful to be reminded by them that last night was expected to be an attack night, so I went to bed early and was ready when the red alert happened. This was the first time I’ve chosen to go to the shelter, because previous alerts during my visits have been yellow or I’ve been deeply asleep. At the base of the car park there were an array of chairs and tables, a hot/cold water machine and courtesy tea bags. I joined around 60 other people as we settled down to read, sleep, or just drift.
I’d been down the road at 9pm when the first yellow alert came through. I was in my local basement bar/diner with a nice glass of lager and food. I stayed for a while and then slipped back to the hotel when the power was shut down in this sector of the city. [I read this morning that it was not a power failure, but a planned reduction in demand, pre-planned]. I was tucked up in bed by 10pm and at 3am I got dressed. I was glad to have made the pledge to my family that I did, not to sleep through air raids. The sound of missiles and defensive gun responses definitely made me dress a little more quickly.
Once downstairs, and knowing I’d made the right decision, I settled down with email, facebook, bbc news and some very unnecessary but time consuming doom scrolling [I meant to share the koala and her new born baby, but I scrolled too quickly – sorry]. Then I realised I had 21hrs of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue on my audible app. Perfect.
I sent notes to my family, just in case they’d seen the news flashes and were worrying (albeit it was 1am in the UK) and put a small post up on Facebook. I quietly hoped that this would be over quickly so I could go back to bed. Actually there was a further sweep of putin birthday bash missiles at 5am, but we were all clear by 7am when the hotel breakfast started.
Now I’m settled back in my room with a final cuppa, before heading off into the sunshine for some meetings with amazing theatremakers. I hope to see a show at the Ivan Franko theatre tonight. The people of Kyiv have faced this invading disruption for many years. They are resilient, determined, of course in trauma and grief for those lost, but the rage against the evil regime and the attempts to take away their freedom is what drives through the tiredness.
I am delighted to be here to work with creatives and theatre producers this week who are the amplifiers of the voices of the future.
Not Born For War is the Ukrainian title of the memoir published as https://www.goodreads.com/uk/book/show/216189382-ordinary-people-don-t-carry-machine-guns by Artem Chapeye