Roman Moroz
As if five days a week at school wasn't enough for most students, some Ukrainian children were made to attend Saturday morning Ukrainian classes run by the formidable Wasyl Moroz. Many of the children were not at all keen on the idea, least of all the Moroz family. Roman Moroz remembers their horror at finding out they had to spend two hours of their precious Saturdays during term time sitting in a classroom at De la Salle College in Summer Street:
"Now this may have suited the various Ukrainian parents and the cultural ambitions they held for their children, but we were interested in other pursuits. This was even harder to take as some of us, including myself, were just beginning to be accepted by our Australian peers at our respective schools . we wanted to be, and tried very had to be, part of the new Aussie culture while our parents feared we would lose the essential part of our culture, namely reading and writing the Ukrainian language.We Ukrainian kids craved acceptance and participation in school activities and on the weekends. I was very keen to be involved in Saturday sport - rugby league - and I also wasn't deaf to the taunts of my school peers who laughed at New Australians for having to go to school on the weekend. Some Australian parents thought it was great for us to try to preserve our cultural heritage but quite a few insisted that we speak in English when we tried in front of them to understand and discuss among ourselves some idea for which we had not yet learnt the English equivalent. 'You're in Australia now so speak in English' was the saying that was thrown at us earlier in our residence in Orange."