Career
In 1959 Ivonka Shymaniets married Janka Survilla, a Belarusian activist and radio broadcaster. With him she moved to Madrid, Spain, where they ran a Belarusian language radio station which was supported by the Spanish government. After closure of the station in 1965, in 1969 Janka and Ivonka Survilla moved to Canada where Ivonka started working as translator for the Federal government of Canada. She eventually became head of department at Health Canada. In Canada Ivonka Survilla became an active member local Belarusian organisations.
In 1986, shortly after the Chernobyl disaster, Survilla and Zina Gimpelevich created the Canadian Relief Fund for Chernobyl Victims in Belarus. Ivonka Survilla was elected president of the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic in 1997, after the death of Jazep Sažyč. She is the first woman president of the Rada and the first president elected after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and creation of an independent Republic of Belarus.
Survilla regularly addresses the Belarusian society on March 25 and other occasions.
She is a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism. Survilla has participated in more than 30 exhibitions as a painter.