Background
Stechishin was born in Tudorkovychi, Lviv Oblast, of Western Ukraine (Galicia), and her family emigrated to Canada in 1913, settling in Krydor, Saskatchewan.
Stechishin was born in Tudorkovychi, Lviv Oblast, of Western Ukraine (Galicia), and her family emigrated to Canada in 1913, settling in Krydor, Saskatchewan.
She completed high school and teachers college, and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree specializing in Home Economics from the University of Saskatchewan in 1930, the first Ukrainian woman to receive a degree there.
She has been described as "an ethnocultural social maternal feminist" (Ostryzniuk, 1999). While studying, she was also the Dean of Women at the Petro Mohyla Institute, where she organized evening courses in cooking, homemaking, Ukrainian culture and cuisine, and public speaking for young women. Later, she taught in public schools and lectured in Ukrainian Language and in the Department of Women"s Services at the University of Saskatchewan, as well as running outreach programs for Ukrainian immigrants.
She also lectured around North America and in Western Ukraine (Polish Galicia) before it was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939.
She helped establish the Ukrainian Women"s Association of Canada in 1926, and the Ukrainian Museum of Canada in 1936. Foreign over 25 years she was editor of the women"s page and columnist for the Winnipeg-based Ukrainian Voice weekly (Ukrayins’kyy Holos).
She also contributed to other Ukrainian women"s publications in North America and Western Ukraine, and wrote for the Canadian Consumer Information Service during the Second World War. Shechishin"s most prominent book is the English-language Traditional Ukrainian Cookery (1957), which saw its eighteenth reprinting in 1995 and has sold 80,000 copies.
Her other books are in Ukrainian: Art Treasures of Ukrainian Embroidery (1950), and a 50th anniversary book for the Saskatoon branch of the Ukrainian Women"s Association (1975).
Savella Stechishin was awarded many honours.
