Ancestors and Descendants

Two documentary exhibitions entitled ‘Ancestors and Descendants’ (Preci i potomci) will open on February 3 at the Cultural Centre of Novi Sad (Youth Panel and Art Salon). The exhibitions are a part of ‘The 100th Anniversary of the Colonization of Vojvodina (1921 – 1941) and the 75th Anniversary of the Colonization (1945 – 1948)’ project, which will be realized within the Migrations programme arch.

KCNS will mark the two colonization periods of Vojvodina in the 20th century (1921 – 1941 and 1945 – 1948) through different panel discussions, exhibition activities, workshops, and film screenings.
During the process of colonization from 1921 to 1941, more than 80 colonies were formed, in the area of today’s AP Vojvodina, which were inhabited by between 65 and 70 thousand inhabitants. Completely new settlements were formed, while some of the colonies built near the old settlements became their integral part.

The colonists were Serbian war veterans – volunteers, former Austro-Hungarian citizens, from Lika, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Boka Kotorska, Banija, Kordun, and Dalmatia, Serbs from Hungary and Romania who moved to their home country, and in Banat those without a land – locals from Banat villages from around today’s Zrenjanin and Kikinda.

The settlements that were formed are natively mixed, which is the specificity of these settlements because the customs of the Serbian population from different areas are intertwined in them. In the colonist settlements, which are the youngest in Vojvodina, the memory of ancestors, pioneer creators of those settlements, is nurtured.

In the years 1921 – 1923, the centenary of interwar colonization was marked. The founders of the settlement had their values: distinct Serbian patriotism, great vitalism because they did not get houses, livestock, and agricultural work right after settling, but began ‘life on bare land’, fighting spirit, life energy, strong mutual solidarity, adaptability to new lifestyles, inclination, and respect for education.