qMAS | SUMMER 2022 | Page 4
In a Suitcase by Kayla Reed
qMAS Research Support Officer Varvara Zilinsky (1861-1950) was born in Voloca, Bucovina, a region which was under Austrian control at the time of her birth. She lived there with her parents; Konstantin Ilia and Iliana Paulenko, until she met Marco Zilinsky, and married him in November 1880. Though the Bucovina region has at times been part of Austria, Romania, and Ukraine, the Zilinsky family was culturally Romanian, and wedding customs, in accordance with their regional culture, involve the entire community. In traditional Bucovinian culture, a man must go to the home of his prospective bride accompanied by his parents and ask for her parents’ permission to be married. On the same day, a dowry and wedding date must be decided. Three weeks before their wedding date, the priest of the local Orthodox Church announces the upcoming marriage to the community. This tapestry was hand woven by Varvara from flax yarn and given to Marco as part of her wedding dowry. The flax plant, Linum usitatissimum, has been cultivated for thousands of years for use in textiles. After the plant is harvested, the inner fibers are removed from the stalks, spun into yarn, and frequently dyed. The yarn used by Varvara was then coloured using natural dyes from plants and minerals local to her hometown such as weld for yellow, madder roots for red, and black from tannin-heavy tree bark. In 1898, an agent from the Canadian Land Office visited the Zilinsky’s hometown of Voloca offering 160 acres of farm land to anyone willing to settle the prairies of Western Canada. The offer was too good to refuse, and so in April, 1899 the family immigrated to Canada. They took a train from
Above: Varvara Zilinsky’s Flax Tapestry. ID 1996.162.1 Czernowitz to Hamburg, Germany and on April 26, 1899, set sail aboard the S.S. Brasailia, landing in Halifax, Nova Scotia on May 9th. Following their arrival in Canada, the Zilinsky family made their way to the prairies carrying just one suitcase and one bundle of clothes between them. Amongst their most important belongings inside the suitcase was Varvara’s tapestry, a material reminder of their homeland. The family settled in Saltcoats, Saskatchewan where they farmed the land for many years before leaving those freezing winters behind and moving to Kelly Creek in 1924. Again, the old woven tapestry made of dyed flax yarn travelled with the family, this time to the mild climate of the qathet region. After she was laid to rest at Kelly Creek’s Holy Cross Cemetery in 1950, Varvara’s beloved tapestry remained in the possession of her family for decades. In 1996 it was donated to the Museum after spending well over one hundred years with the Zilinsky family.
