CONTRIBUTION OF CROATIAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS TO THE PRESERVATION OF CROATIAN IDENTITY THROUGH THE SUPPORT OF THE HIŠAK ORGANISATION (CROATIAN SCHOOLS OF AMERICA, AUSTRALIA AND CANADA)
Keywords:
HIŠAK, Croatian Catholic missions, identity, communication, professional training of teachersAbstract
The paper gives a brief overview of the activities of priests of the Catholic Church who have supported
Croatian emigrants since the beginning of migration. The church and parish centres were places where, in addition
to spirituality, Croats nurtured their own customs and traditions. The Catholic Church began its emigration mission
with Croats in 1894 in the United States of America, where together they built the first church in 1912. Over time,
the Church in diaspora began to establish Croatian Catholic missions (hereinafter: HKM), whose role was to foster
communication among Croatian emigrants, preserve the Croatian language, open Croatian supplementary schools,
establish educational, cultural and sports organisations in cooperation with Croatian expatriate intellectuals. Their
participation in the work of the organisation of the Croatian schools of America, Australia and Canada (hereinafter:
HIŠAK) was also significant. HIŠAK's mission was to open Croatian supplementary schools in diaspora, publishing
manuals for learning the Croatian language, organisation of professional training for teachers and publishing
activities. The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight into the contribution of HKM to the construction of
Croatian identity and their support for the development of the network of Croatian schools in diaspora, as well as
support for the HIŠAK organisation. The research was focused on the activities of HIŠAK in the field of
professional development and organisation of seminars for Croatian language teachers and folklore. Based on the set
goal, the following research tasks were defined: to determine the number of seminars organised by HIŠAK
according to published data on seminar invitations in their school newsletter Vjesnik, in the period from 1977 to
1986, and to systematize them according to the type of seminar, field of work, dates of the event and the venue.
Quantitative analysis determined the amount of information published in Vjesnik about the seminars, after which the
seminars were systematized depending on whether they were international or provincial. The qualitative method
used in the research was thematic analysis. It was established that in the period from 1978 to 1986, HIŠAK
organised two international seminars for teachers, in 1984 and 1986, in Canada at Laurential University, as well as
three provincial seminars in nine Canadian cities. Language and folklore were represented at every professional
training, in addition, reports from Croatian schools and manuals for learning the Croatian language published by
HIŠAK were presented at the seminars. The activities of the HKM and HIŠAK in fostering the Croatian language
and culture in overseas countries during Yugoslavia enabled the preservation of the Croatian identity and laid the
foundations for the Republic of Croatia to continue offering educational programs, as well as plan strategies and
policies towards emigrant Croats and their descendants.
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