Stepan Bandera Visit to Geelong
This year, all around the world, Ukrainians have been celebrating 80 years and the formation of OUN, 100 years since the birth of Stepan Bandera and 50 years since his assassination. As part of these celebrations, it was organized by OUN, CYM and LVU for Stepan Bandera, the grandson of OUN leader Stepan Bandera, to visit Australia in order to talk about his grandfather in context of Ukraines struggle for Independance. As part of his tour ‘down-under’, the Ukrainian community in Geelong was fortunate to share a few evenings with Stepan , who’s grandfather is the patron of our CYM oseredok. On Wednesday 16th September, a ‘meet and greet’ was hosted by Hromada and CYM Geelong for all Geelong community members at the CYM Hall, where there were 36 attendees. Stepan Bandera had compiled a presentation outlining his family’s history. A good discussion was held after the presentation. Following this, discussions continued late into the night at an informal gathering at the home of one of our members.

The following day, Stepan Bandera was shown Geelong’s local natural beauty found along the Great Ocean Road. Stepan also had a try of the Australian tradition of surfing. Later that day, a meeting was held for the youth of CYM and Plast. It was a very interesting presentation, whereby Stepan Bandera, fluent in English and Ukrainian spoke about his family history in English. A lot was taken away from his presentation by the 18 youth and 17 parents present on the night. Stepan was also presented with a Geelong Cats jumper by the CYM oseredok.

Overall, it was a highly successful couple of days. Much was learnt about the activity of OUN in Ukraines Vyzvolni Zmahania and one of OUN’s most famous leaders Stepan Bandera. We thank Stepan Bandera for coming to Australia for giving us a wonderful insight.

Adam Jartym
Druzhynyk CYM Geelong