In June 2016, Ukrainer began its work as a media project for fans of intellectual media, unexpected geographical discoveries and multiculturalism.
For several decades, Ukrainians have been actively emigrating or moving to large cities, gradually leaving their towns and villages without knowing anything about them. Stories of small settlements did not become media, but remained in family archives and eventually erased from memory. That is why Ukrainer began to tell stories from all over Ukraine, primarily for Ukrainians themselves. In this way, we seek to rethink the historical features and cultural codes of our own lands; ethnographic, geographical, anthropological interests. We hope that this will help to formulate the value of our own country for ourselves and to develop the space in which we live, not to leave it.
To the naked eye, Ukraine opens up unexpected, interesting, unpredictable and authentic. But how do Ukrainians see their country? Very often, when returning from abroad, they first of all pay attention to the grayness, negativity and rudeness of big cities. For several years of the project’s existence, we have been telling mostly stories that demonstrate Ukraine in a global context, about changes and victories in all regions of the country at different levels. We also decided to represent Ukraine to the world and with the help of a large volunteer team we already publish materials in several languages (English, Polish, German, Czech, Georgian, French, Greek), showing our own country as the world media usually do.
Domestic tourism in Ukraine is still poorly developed, the branching of the transport system is also imperfect. Many Ukrainians have never left their region at all. Those of us who travel a lot in Ukraine may notice how little we know about neighboring regions and about our country as a whole. Therefore, one of the goals of the project is also to overcome stereotypes between different regions through information.
That is why we started to create Ukrainer – a media project that aims to thoroughly understand and formulate who we are and convey it to the world in an accessible media form.
The first anthropological and ethnographic expedition lasted from June 2016 to October 2018 and covered all 16 historical regions of Ukraine – from Slobozhanshchyna to Podillya, from Volyn to Tavria, except for those territories that are temporarily occupied.
Ukraїner tells cognitive stories about the most remote corners, people, art and business in Ukraine. More than 200 volunteers create these stories for you, which show a different Ukraine. Thank you for your reader interest and support. Your involvement and dissemination of our stories is one of the most important criteria for the success of our business.
