The first Russians in Canada were fur hunters, based in present-day Alaska, who operated among the Queen Charlotte Islands [Haida Gwaii] and along the coast farther south in the 1790s, and several Russian officers on detached service with the British navy, who were based at Halifax from 1793-95.

Southeast Asia has been, and continues to be, both a way station and a port of call for traders from throughout Asia and Africa, and later from Europe and parts of the New World.

 Some 500 years before Columbus landed on a Caribbean island, displaced Norsemen discovered and attempted a settlement on Canada's shores (seeNORSE VOYAGES; ICELANDERS).

Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, is an island of 65 525 square kilometres in South Asia, located near the equator and within major sea lanes in the Indian Ocean. Its population is approximately 20 million people.

IN PARIS'S GRAND OLD Musée de l'Homme, near the Eiffel Tower, the flow of fascinated visitors these days is steady.

Udo Kasemets. Composer, pianist, organist, teacher, writer, b Tallinn, Estonia, 16 Nov 1919, naturalized Canadian 1957; honorary D LITT (York) 1991.

Marginalized by geographic and economic factors, the Acadian regions remained culturally isolated until the middle of the 20th century. Music and folklore were the only widespread forms of artistic expression until the advent of higher education and access to the wider world.

Ethnic studies are concerned with the study of groups who share a sense of peoplehood, based on a belief in a common origin, culture or physical traits. These studies embrace a wide range of disciplines, eg, history, SOCIOLOGY, ANTHROPOLOGY, other SOCIAL SCIENCES, EDUCATION and the humanities.

Italian Canadians are amongst the earliest Europeans to have visited and settled the country. The steadiest waves of immigration, however, occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries. Italian Canadians have featured prominently in union organization and business associations.

The Republic of Indonesia is located in southeast Asia. It is the world's largest archipelago and is comprised of more than 17 000 islands; three of the largest islands are Sumatra, Java and Bali.

Iceland, an island settled in the 9th century AD by renegade NORWEGIAN chieftains and their followers, is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a fairly moderate climate.

Hutterites are one of three major Christian Anabaptist sectarian groups (the others are the MENNONITES and the Amish) surviving today and the only group to insist rigorously on the communal form of existence.

Greek immigration to Canada began early in the 19th century. Greeks from the islands (eg, Crete, Syros and Skopelos) and from the Peloponnesus, especially the poor villages of the provinces of Arcadia and Laconia, settled in Montréal as early as 1843.

The Republic of Malta is an archipelago comprised of 7 islands located in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Sicily. Malta was a British colony from 1814 until 21 September 1964, when it gained its independence; 10 years later it became a republic.

The French came to the North-West from Montréal in search of furs and an overland route to the MER DE L'OUEST which would lead to a short route to China (see COUREURS DE BOIS).

The first Finnish immigrants to arrive in North America were part of a group of settlers who established the colony of New Sweden along the banks of the Delaware River between 1641 and 1655. The total number of settlers was small and was soon assimilated into the American mainstream.

From the mid-19th century to around 1930, over 900 000 francophone Québecois emigrated to the US. They migrated in waves, especially after the AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, and around 1890 managed to feel at home and, in a few generations, adopted the habits and customs of their new surroundings.

Canadian society can be described, at one level, as a complex network of relations among ethnic groups which occupy unequal economic, political and social positions in Canadian society.

It is generally recognized that the Czechs and SLOVAKS make up one ethnic group composed of 2 closely connected but still distinct Slavic units. After the breakup of the Czechoslovakia federation 2 independent states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, were established in January 1993.

Byelorussians (Byelarussians, Belarusians) are an eastern Slavic people. From 1922 to 1991 Byelorussia was a constituent republic of the USSR. In the 13th century, Byelorussian lands formed part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

The Slovenians are a Slavic people whose main homeland was recognized in 1991 as the independent Republic of Slovenia. However, large indigenous ethnic minorities of Slovenians still live in Austria, Italy and Hungary.

The principality of Wales (incorporated into England by the Act of Union of 1536) has always been overshadowed by England, Ireland and Scotland.

German Canadians — that is, Canadians who report their ethnic origin as solely or partly from Germany or of German ancestry — are one of Canada's largest ethnic categories of European origin. In 2006, 3,179,425 people in Canada reported German as their ethnic origin.

The Suian Maru Voyagers were a group of people, 80 men and three women, who sailed to Canada in the summer of 1906 aboard the Suian Maru, which set sail from Japan's Miyagi Prefecture.

Today Armenia comprises only a portion of historic Armenia, and also includes territories in present-day Turkey.