THE COVERAGE OF UKRAINE AND UKRAINIANS IN THE AUSTRALIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA

Abstract

In this article, we present an analysis of the 10-volumed Australian Encyclopedia published in 1958. The purpose of the analysis is to identify encyclopedic information concerning the Ukrainian people. Since the late 19th century, a part of the Ukrainian ethnic group inhabits the Australian continent, so it is natural to expect the appearance of Ukrainians in encyclopedic publications of Australia. But do Australians mention Ukrainians in their own fundamental encyclopedias? This question is caused not only by the general interest, but also by the fact that Ukraine is shown in the national narratives of many countries through various myths generated by Soviet propaganda. Therefore, the analysis of the representation of Ukrainians in the pages of foreign encyclopedias is a topical issue of contemporary Ukrainian studies in general. In this study, we found that the main body of information about Ukrainians is statistical data about the Ukrainian community in Australia, which settled after the Second World War. Among the 10 volumes there are no mentions of Ukraine, its capital, prominent people of the nation, etc. In addition, general highlights of the Australian encyclopedia publishing sphere are proposed. It is noted that the Australian Encyclopedia as a fundamental work published in six editions during 1925–1996 is the main achievement of the Australian encyclopediography. It is noteworthy that there is currently no national online encyclopedia in Australia. At the same time, there are domain (subject-specific) publications by research teams among other achievements of contemporary Australian encyclopedia publishing, such as the Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, the Historical Encyclopedia of Western Australia, the Companion to Tasmanian History, etc.