New Iceland

Not to be confused with New Zealand.

New Iceland (Icelandic: Nýja Ísland listen ) is the name of a region on Lake Winnipeg in the Canadian province Manitoba which was named for settlers from Iceland. It was settled in 1875.

Background

The first Icelandic émigrés to Canada were Mormons from the Westman Islands. The more general migration followed an offer from Lord Dufferin of land in Manitoba to establish what amounted to a "free state".^[1]

Due to harsh environmental and economic conditions in Iceland, including the eruption of Mount Askja, some 20,000 Icelanders left their homeland between 1870 and 1915 - roughly a quarter of the population of Iceland.^[1] In 1875 a large group of Icelandic immigrants migrated from Ontario to Manitoba, leaving Kinmount, Ontario, on September 25, 1875, for Gimli, Manitoba on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. One of the main reasons for the choice of the colony site was “the abundance of fish” in Lake Winnipeg, but according to Icelandic People in Manitoba, “their first attempts at fishing on Lake Winnipeg were not successful.” Moreover, the “winter of 1875–1876 was one of the coldest on record in Manitoba, and the settlers’ clothes, including the leather shoes from Ontario, were not suitable for the rigorous weather.” However, the immigrants eventually learned to handle the axe, prepare the soil, fish through ice, and hunt game. They also learned how to drain the land, grow crops, and build better houses.

These Icelandic settlers, known in their native language as Vestur-Íslendingar (meaning Icelanders in the West; initially many Icelanders did not see emigration as a change of country, and there was some discussion of moving the entire population^[1]), called their settlement "New Iceland", and the region remains a symbolic centre of the Icelandic heritage in Canada today.

Other information

According to Statistics Canada, Manitoba is home to the largest Icelandic population outside of Iceland.^[2] There are about 26,000 people with Icelandic ancestry living in Manitoba,^[3] making up about 2% of the total population of Manitoba. About 35% of the Icelandic Canadian population lives in Manitoba.^[4]
Currently many ethnic festivals related to New Iceland, such as Íslendingadagurinn, are held in these areas, and also the weekly newspaper Lögberg-Heimskringla^[5] is printed in Winnipeg.
The University of Manitoba has an Icelandic Department in which students can study Icelandic language and literature at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels.
Gimli, Manitoba was within the "Icelandic Reserve" granted to Icelandic settlers by the Government of Canada in 1875. Contrary to popular misconception, New Iceland was never a "republic", though the settlers did organize their own local government, which until 1880 was outside the boundaries of Manitoba. The reserve, at that time within the District of Keewatin, Northwest Territory, was always under Canadian jurisdiction, and the Icelanders were keenly aware of their new loyalties and obligations as Canadians and British subjects - as evidenced during speeches made at Gimli during the visit of Lord Dufferin, Governor General of Canada, in 1877.

References

1 2 3 William H. Swatos, Jr. and Loftur Reimar Gissurarson, Icelandic Spiritualism: Mediumship and Modernity in Iceland, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction, 1996, ISBN 1-56000-273-5, p. 53.
↑ Manitoba Icelandic Population
↑ Statcan - Manitoba Icelandic Population
↑ Statcan - Icelandic Canadians living in Manitoba
↑ Combining Heimskringla ('Globe'), founded in 1886, and Lögberg ('Law-Mound'), founded in 1888; Swatos and Gissurarson, p. 57.

External links

Bibliography

Guðjón Angrímsson (1997), Nýja Ísland: Saga of the journey to New Iceland ISBN 978-0-88801-255-5
David Arnason (1994), The new Icelanders: A North American community ISBN 0-88801-186-5
Kristin Olafson-Jenkyns (2001), The Culinary Saga of New Iceland: Recipes from the Shores of Lake Winnipeg ISBN 0968911900

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