Driving a stake through the vampire story of Wilno, Ontario

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Mike Smaglinski, who grew up hunting andplaying hockey and broomball in the Ottawa Valley, says he was at first puzzled to hear of something supernatural in hishometown.

"I find it intriguing. It's silly because I'm kind of a bighorror movie fan. So I immediately gravitated towardthis story," said Smaglinski, mentioningthe story of Wilno, Ont., and its population years ago of "a couple hundred."

"I saw an article in the Ottawa Citizen and at the time, I just thought it was cool that the Ottawa Citizen knew where Wilno was because we never get mentioned anywhere, right?"

As he started digging, hewas surprised to discover yearsof newspaper articlesall stemming from a 1972 reportbySlavic folklorist Jan Perkowski particularly since he had never heard anything about vampires in the tight-knit community.

He visitedLibrary and Archives Canada to read the original, which tells of among other things residents warding off the fanged creatures by digging up gravesand cutting off the heads of corpses.

"It was sort of crazy It sounds like [Perkowski is]just trying to create a story some kind of sensationalized story so that he can further his career or something," said Smaglinski.

'It's all bullcrap'

David Shulist is moreblunt.

"It's all bullcrap," saidthe co-founderof the Wilno Heritage Society, addinghehas also never heard anyone mention vampires.

Historianand formerresident Joshua C. Blank looked into the report's claimsas part of his master's researchand later his book.

"Perkowki'swork is not well-researched. It's not contextualized. And he totally misread the community and his informants," said Blank, who teaches history and law.

"He took a lot of the words from residents and twisted them."

When his findings were published, they made headlines across the country and were even brought up in Question Period on Parliament Hill.

The condemnation residents felthad a lasting impact, making residents wary of speaking to external researchers, something Blank has dubbed "the Perkowski effect."

"There was a lot of hurt in the '60s and '70s when this work came out, and still to this day, " he said."Unfortunately [the vampirestory]has survived and the true stories haven't come out."

'The real Wilno'

He says residents today want to be known for something different.

"There's much more history, much more rich traditions in the area," said Blank, pointing to the large number of artists, the jet fighter and Avro Arrow test pilot who lived in Barry's Bay, the perogies at the Wilno Tavern, as well as Wilno's Polish Kashub Heritage Museum.

"That's what we want this community to be known for and not something that's made up and supernatural."

Shulist said he is "sick and tiredof this [vampire nonsense]." Hehelped launch a heritage day to celebrate local culture, including dancing, music,and language learning.

"I'm going to redirect this thing to the positive. I want people to focus on the real Wilno who we are," said Shulist.

Kashubian Discovery

For Shulist, that means being proud of a heritage he only discovered later in life: being Kashubian.

Kashubia refers to an area in what is now calledPoland with its ownlanguage and traditions. Many of Wilno's settlers immigrated from therein the mid-1800sin search of land.

According to Shulist, the arrival of a Polish priest in the 1870s led to the town identifying as Polish, despite confusion when Kashubian speakersstruggled to communicate with Polish visitors.

"We were always told that we were Polish and that we were of Polish heritage. And even the language that we speak was the Polish language," he said.

"We found out later that [Kashubian]is a language, a Slavic language that stands on its own."

Shulisthas since visited Kashubia13 times, and during his time as the mayor in the Ottawa Valley,establisheda twinning agreement between the two regions.

Kashubian and Polish?

For others, including the most recent president of the heritage society, it's important to celebrate both therecently revived Kashubianidentityand the Polish heritage many grew up with.

"This is who our ancestors were. This is who we are," explained PeterGlofcheskie.

Blank, Glofcheskie's nephew, agreesbut also understands whysome residentshave conflicted feelings around Polishness. He says one reason wastensioncreated when a wave of wealthier Polisharrived and built cottages in the area post-war.

They called what they spoke"high Polish" whilethe often working class locals spoke adialect called"low Polish."

"Over the years,socioeconomic status fuelled a lot of [the tension]," he said. "Only recently havea lot of those bridges been mended."

Though the town bears a plaque designating it "Canada's oldest Polish community,"the heritage museum's website "celebrates Canada's unique Polish Kashub cultural heritage," while the building itself bears a sign saying "Welcome to Canada's Kashubia."

Digging deeper

It's clearfrustration remains over how the town's story has been told.

"If you're looking at a vampire story, basically our identity was sucked right out of us," saidShulist. "Sometimes the journalists and media are the vampires because they like to spread that falsehood, because it makes great television."

"But it's not fair to the people of Wilno, because that is not our history," Shulist toldfilmmakersTys Burger and Josh Murphy, who created this video for CBC Ottawa's Creator Network.

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Burger and Murphy, bothhorror buffs, had heard about vampiresgrowing up in nearby Pembrokeand were intrigued to dig into the valley lore. They saythey uncovered a tale at once more complicated and richer.

"On paper there's this vampire story. But if you dig deep enough, you'll get at the heart of people, you'll get at the heart of this town," said Murphy.

Smaglinski, who at this time of year oftenreturns home for the annualfestival, calls it a chance to celebratethe town's own story and cultural identity.

"It has created a sense of pride in the community, just having a better knowledge of where they come fromand what their ancestors were like before them."