VALENTYNA NOSEWORTHY

Date and Place of Birth: 1951 in Winnipeg, Manitoba

Date of Interview: November 5, 2015

Place of Interview: Toronto, Ontario

Interviewer: Sophia Isajiw

Length of Interview: 01:55:53 (raw)

Mother (Survivor): Anna Shewel (maiden name: Fursa), b. 1925 in Bereza, Hlukhiv, Ukraine, d. 2009

Father (Survivor): Oleksa Shewel, b. in Bereza, Hlukhiv, Ukraine, d. 1982

(Excerpt):

My principal of my school was a big advocate for me to have the position that I have now, because I always talk middle years whenever I get a chance to because it’s that important, and she knew that and she, she’s a very, very wise person. She hooked me up with one of our, she was the Assistant Deputy Minister of Education. She came in for a meeting with my principal and my principal called me in to meet with her and had a conversation, and she said: “Yeah, Val, you’re the person we want in this position.” Although I knew that there were other very, very good people that applied, and I could have named a number of people that would have been really, really good in this position. But, I didn’t realize at the time that I would be able to, when I got my job, that I would have be able to do the work I’ve been able to do around Holodomor education and the internment issue. And I knew that that was God’s way of having somebody there in this kind of a job that could do it. Because our Social Studies curriculum at that time was being rewritten and there was nothing, there was no mention about Holodomor, internment, things like that. So I was there at the right time to be able to introduce that.

CROSS REFERENCES:

• Valentina Noseworthy’s mother, Anna Shewel, is interviewed in a documentary video, “The Holodomor,” which was donated to the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. Produced by Canad Inns. A DVD copy of the video is in her UCRDC file.

• Valentina Noseworthy’s mother, Anna Shewel, is interviewed by Carol Sanders, “SURVIVING THE HORROR People Ate Anything They Could Find, Just to Stay Alive.” The Winnipeg Free Press 27 November 2003: Print. Online version from Art Ukraine website: http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/surv_horr.htm

• Remarks by Valentina Noseworthy, "Holodomor Education in Manitoba Curricula" at the Holodomor Education Conference: The Holodomor and Curricula – Triumphs and Challenges, Toronto, Canada, 10-12 May 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMT59SrAzcY

• Valentina Noseworthy developed the educational Powerpoint “Holodomor Education PDF for Schools.” A copy of this is digitally available as part of her UCRDC file.