Centenary of Poland’s Regained Independence marked

Centenary of Poland’s Regained Independence marked during Beca Heritage Week

On the centenary of Poland's regained independence, Polish settlers who sought refuge in New Zealand from the hardships of life under foreign rule, will be remembered during Beca Heritage Week later this month.

Between 1772 and 1795 Poland’s neighbours, Russia, Prussia and Austro-Hungary, dismantled the country and divided its land. Poland’s loss of independence led to a large wave of emigration in the 19th century in search of freedom and a better life.

A small number of Polish Jews started settling in Christchurch in the 1850s and 1860s, followed by a larger group of Polish migrants from the Prussian zone arriving from 1872 onwards. They were the beginning of the Polish community in Christchurch.

Included in the programme of this month’s Beca Heritage Week is a commemorative self-guided walk of the Linwood Cemetery which explores the history of those early Polish settlers in Canterbury. Their stories will come alive in a free public talk during the Heritage Week in which researcher Barbara Scrivens and President of Polish Genealogical Society of New Zealand Ray Watembach, himself a great-grandson of the first Polish settlers. They will talk about their research and what it uncovered, and later invite members of the audience to ask questions and share their research journeys.

Both events were planned and are hosted by the Polish Association in Christchurch.

The theme of this year’s Heritage Week, “Strength from Struggle – remembering our courageous communities”, honours those individuals and families who chose to make new lives in a British colony on the other side of the world, a world they had little information about, and where they did not speak the language, says Anna Gruczynska, the Polish Association’s President.

Some, like Christchurch Hospital benefactor Hyman Marks, successfully engaged in trade. Others settled in and farmed the Marshland area, gradually transforming its swampy land into the market gardens that fed early Christchurch settlers and eventually proved ideal for vegetable growing and dairy farming.

Poland never gave up its fight for independence, and it was reborn as an independent country in 1918, after 123 years of foreign rule.

When Poland was nowhere: Centenary of Poland’s Regained Independence Events

(as part of the Beca Heritage Week):

• Commemorative Linwood Cemetery Walk - 12-22 October 2018, Linwood Cemetery, Butterfield Ave

• Free Public Talk - Early Polish Settlers: Uncovering their stories - 18 October 2018 at 6:00 p.m., Exchange Christchurch, 136 Wilsons Road

http://www.polonia.org.nz/news-and-events

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