"The idea for this show stemmed largely from my personal interest in Canada and the Estonian community there," admitted show author and host Ave-Marleen Rei. "I don't have a single relative who settled in Canada, making the community there all the more mysterious to me."

Rei's own childhood memories date back to the latter half of the 1980s, with a growing awareness that somewhere far away in Canada, someone had a rich uncle that helped start a business or sent packages of exciting stuff.

"That was pretty much all I knew about Estonians in Canada – a total cliche," she admitted.

"Of course, that's not the case, and I wanted to understand how they've managed to remain Estonian in such a distant land – and what that really meant," she continued. "This wasn't some state-supported cultural preservation program; people freely chose to do this."

But why Canada specifically?

"Because the biggest diaspora Estonian community lives in Toronto; there's a very strong core there," the show host said. The fact that this year marks the 80th anniversary of the Great Flight of 1944, when tens of thousands fled Estonia by sea ahead of advancing Soviet forces, plays a key role in the birth of the series as well.

The families featured in the seven-part series were found with the help of Piret Noorhani, chief archivist at the Museum of Estonians Abroad (VEMU) in Toronto.

"Each episode focuses on one family spanning three generations," Rei explained. "The first generation is the one that fled from here. The second generation are the children of the boat refugees, and then their children too. All of these families have managed to preserve their Estonian identity across three generations. All of the interviews on the show are in Estonian. Even the kids spoke Estonian – the youngest I spoke with was 16 years old."

Initially, the show's author intended to find families who haven't been as successful in maintaining their Estonian identity.

"It would have been interesting to hear the stories of those who chose differently, but people who have given up their Estonian identity and culture aren't connected to the community, and in a huge country like Canada, they're very hard to find," she explained. Which is why the stories of those who abandoned their Estonian identity or didn't manage to preserve it aren't featured in this series.

It takes a village

While in Canada, Rei visited Jõekääru, an Estonian children's camp in Elora – about an hour's drive north of Toronto – that the community has maintained for more than 70 years already.

"There's a huge property and little cabins," she said. "A lot of second- and third-generation Estonians have spent all their summers there. Teenagers that have already aged out of being campers are now working there as counselors."

Immediately surrounding the camp are Estonian-owned summer homes, the show host explained, forming sort of an Estonian village "where even the streets have Estonian names," like Kalevi, Lembitu, Pirita and Viru. She added that most of these homes have since found new owners, but some still remain in Estonian families' hands.

The abundance of activities offered in the Estonian community in Toronto is absolutely incredible as well.

"Kids would attend Estonian activities five, six times a week – scouts and guides, choir, folk dancing, and learning about Estonian culture," Rei described. "It was so extensive that it didn't leave you any time for anything else. Of course, some also protested against it, and it sometimes even happened that some young folks would remove themselves from the Estonian [community] for a long time because there was just too much pressure from their parents."

At the ballet

According to Rei, one meeting in particular was especially moving for her.

"The oldest gentleman I spoke with was 98-year-old Asko Kütti, who was 18 when he left Estonia and remembered everything very clearly," she said. "Right in episode one you'll hear about how Asko planned to head to Finland in the spring of 1944. He had arranged everything with the boatman, and even already paid for it all – but the boatman never showed up."

Since Kütti was from Tartu and didn't find himself in Tallinn often, he had decided to go to the theater that evening – a performance of the ballet "Kratt" at Estonia Theater.

That night, Tallinn was hit by what is known as the March bombing. "The performance was interrupted, and as Asko said, his hat and coat are still in the cloakroom at Estonia Theater," Rei recalled.

"I was really shocked when he told that story," she admitted. "I couldn't believe that I was talking face-to-face with someone who had been at that fateful performance of 'Kratt'! It was like chatting with a history book."

Most of the people the show author interviewed for the series had never shared their memories or written memoirs before. This was particularly the case for the second generation, whose stories have largely gone untold until now.

Before her visit to Canada, Rei imagined Toronto's Estonians as a strong and unified community. Once there, however, she discovered that they have their own disagreements and conflicts too. For example, she had never heard before about how first-generation Estonians had very differing views on keeping in touch with the Soviet-occupied homeland.

"There was a group of very conservative people who believed there should be no contact with Estonia whatsoever; anyone who did keep in touch with Estonia was considered a communist and a traitor," she described. "That felt like an unexpectedly harsh stance. Many were also of course afraid to keep in touch, thinking it may lead to repercussions for their relatives back home."

Currently under construction in downtown Toronto is the KESKUS International Estonian Center, a grand new successor to the former long-serving Toronto Estonian House. Even this project has sparked conflicting opinions among Toronto's Estonian community.

"The younger generations see it as an opportunity to share Estonian culture with a broader audience," Rei said. "But the older generation misses the old building, which has already been sold."

Opportunities in the homeland

One of the people Rei interviewed while in Toronto was an 18-year-old young man who is considering coming to Estonia for conscription.

"That got me thinking about what opportunities they see in Estonia," she said. "A younger woman mentioned how good the child support system is in Estonia, and how expensive it is to buy a home in Canada. So there are some pretty practical considerations pulling them toward Estonia. They're also thinking about the study and work opportunities available here."

"What was also interesting was the fact that while most diaspora Estonians are grateful for the opportunity to rebuild their lives in Canada, there are also those who are highly critical of Canadian society, and don't condone the fact that Canada was built on Indigenous land, which [no one] has wanted to adequately acknowledge," the host added.

Alongside the happier stories of preserving the Estonian identity abroad, the series also highlights the fact that fleeing Estonia was a trauma – one that tends to get passed down to subsequent generations.

"These things weren't talked about within families or among friends," Rei said. "The issue was swept under the rug. As a result, some members of the younger generation feel like they still have to deal with this trauma."

Starting October 4, "Abroad and at Home" ("Võõrsil ja kodus") will on Vikerraadio on Fridays at 7:05 p.m.

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