Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.08.1981, Page 4
4-WINNIPEG, HÁTÍÐARBLAÐ 1981
Ritstj órnargr ein
The Icelandic Festival of Manitoba
Islendingadagurinn
The 92nd Icelandic Festival of
Manitoba will be celebrated at
Gimli August 1-3. In last year's
Festival issue of L.H. the history of
this annual event was documented
in considerable detail. Originally,
the Festival was designed to com-
memorate Iceland's constitutional
reform in 1874 when the King of
Denmark granted the Icelanders
legislative autonomy and control
over their own financial affairs.
With the passage of time, however,
this Festival came to be devoted to
the heritage which the Icelandic
pioneers brought with them to their
two North American countries of
adoption. Finally, the Manitoba
location of the festivities brought
about a redefinition in regional
terms resulting in the present
designation The Icelandic Festival
of Manitoba — íslendingadagur-
inn. This reference to provincial
boundaries does, however, not reflect
any restrictions in attendance. As is
well-known, the basis of the
Festival has been broadened con-
siderably in recent years, chiefly
through participation by visitors
from Iceland.
As can be expected, the content of
the Festival program has changed
considerably over the years. A
number of new features have been
introduced, many of which can be
found at any other North American
Fair. These items should not be
downgraded in any way. Most of us
are duly impressed with the dazzl-
ing splendour of the annual Parade
which has grown from year to year
in length and complexity. Who
would want to miss the Shriners
whose peculiar attire adds colour to
the celebration? Furthermore, many
of us take particular interest in the
great variety of souvenirs made
available to visitors. The parachute
jumps — a fairly regular item of ex-
citement — should also be mention-
ed. One could list a number of other
related diversions all of which
testify to the ingenuity of the
Festival Committee.
Without recommending ány
changes in the program features
referred to above, one may wonder
how they relate to the main theme
of the Festival and its avowed pur-
pose of making known the ethnic
heritage of North American-
Icelanders to their fellow citizens. It
would of course be unfair to include
jn this Festival issue of L.H. any
critical remarks on the very event to
which it is dedicated. Yet it seems
appropriate to express the hope that
the Festival committee will soon
review the entire format of its pro-
gram and make special efforts to in-
crease its Icelandic content in both
volume and quality.
There seem to be many ways of
achieving the end suggested here,
and increased participation in the
Festival program by qualified peo-
ple from Iceland is certainly one of
these. All of us remember when one
of Iceland's Grandmasters in Chess
and President of the World Chess
Federation Friðrik Ólafsson, was in-
vited to parficipate in the 1978
Festival. His performance attracted
people's attention to the Festival
Second of two parts
Danger on the Lake
A. Did you ever run into any
danger out fishing on this lake? It's
supposed to be a dangerous lake.
H. Oh, yeah. All kinds of times. I
was on a boat one time it caught
fire. There was nobody around.
There was me and Toti Johnson
fishing at Granite Quarry, and we
go out in this old boat with an old
car motor with a 20 or 30 gallon gas
tank right by the motor, and here it
backfired and it caught fire. So Toti
didn't know what the heck to do
and we started bailing water — and
that's the worst thing you can do is
put water on a gas fire — and we
started bailing with a pail and a 50
Ib. box. We had the boat about half
full of water. (I was only about six-
teen or seventeen years old at that
time and was fishing with Toti). So
right across the North American
continent. At the 1975 Festival the
performances by a group of actors
from the National Theatre in Reyk-
javík transcended any ethnic boun-
daries.
Let us now turn to another
resource available to the Festival
committee. In the North American-
Icelandic society we find a number
of individuals highly qualified for
participation in virtually any such
field as is worthy of consideration
for those concerned with the
disemination of culture. These peo-
ple should play a role of increasing
importance at our future festivals.
Paradoxical though it may appear,
the Icelandic Festival must strive to
maintain its ethnic boundaries and,
at the same time, transcend them.
Its primary role is that of serving as
a catalyst between the two
resources noted earlier and the
wider North American community.
While the entire Festival program
should have strong ethnic or Icelan-
dic overtones, every item must be
adapted to the prevailing cir-
all of a sudden my parka — I had a
parka on — all of a sudden I said to
myself, geez — I took my parka off
and I jumped on the motor and I
shut the gas tank off and jumped on
the motor with my parka and
smothered the fire. Chris Arnason
and Steve, they were way past, just
about out of sight. We could see
them, and they didn't even know
that our boat caught fire. We had no
life belts, no life boat, no fire ex-
tinguisher or nothing on our boat.
Not a thing. We couldn't even
swim. That's nothing. Then I started
the motor up again. I was the
engineer. I started the motor up
again and it caught fire again, but
then I knew what to do and it didn't
take me long to put the fire out. And
then we started the motor up again
and it worked good all day — never
caught fire again.
A. Did you get caught in bad
storms from time to time?
H. Oh, yeah. Hurricanes, 70 mile
an hour wind. Inga can tell you that
since she was in one. Well, I wasn't
there, but I've been on a boat, out in
the lake in a hurricane. My most ter-
rible — well we were just out here
— I just went out to lift my nets and
my boat was empty and I had a 5 HP
Johnson, and that was many, many
years ago. In an old boat that Palmi
Johanson used to build, those little
skiffs you know. And I went out to
lift — I think it was in the afternoon
cumstances. Accordingly, films
from Iceland — and there are many
of these — must have subtitles in
English. By the same token a North
American artist of Icelandic descent
would be expected to include some
Icelandic features in his perfor-
mance or presentation.
During most of its history the
Festival may be said to have
adhered quite closely to the above
guidelines. One can only hope that
they will be clearly reflected in
every phase of our future Festivals.
An ethnic culture, with its roots in
North America and Iceland, is dif-
ficult to define because not only is
culture both varied and abstract in
nature but subject to constant evolu-
tion and change. What was perti-
nent a few years ago may now have
lost its validity. Because of this the
task of the Icelandic Festival com-
mittee is a difficult one. While its
broader terms of reference remain
clear, the fulfilment of these terms
depends entirely on the enlighten-
ment of its members.
H.B.
— my boat was empty, just couple
of empty boxes in it, and all of a sud-
den she came from the southeast.
Boy, just . . . and the waves were
just like mountains in about two
minutes and my boat just started go-
ing in circles. I eouldn't even steer
it. The wind just took it and turned
it around and I thought I would
drown. I was close to shore, not that
far out — I went straight out from
the dock towards the north point —
so I thought to myself, well I'll just
jump out of the boat when I hit. the
shore — the southeast wind it was
going on to shore, like — and these
waves, Holy Christ, they were big-
ger than a house. So I just — I was
going to jump out — I was going to
jump out of the boat when it hit the
shore. You know it would smash the
boat all to pieces, and the motor and
everything. Thqm were big waves.
But then all of a sudden it cleared up
and lulled a little bit and I got into
the wind and I yvas right out here,
about Jrom this line here, and it took
me an hour and a half to get to the
dock. An hour and a half. It was, oh,
about three blocks. I went
backwards sometimes. Sometimes
I'd go backwards and then I'd go a
little bit ahead, then I'd go
backwards . . . Oh, Agnes, Mable
and Becky. You got to watch when
they come, boy. Sometimes Becky,
she's the last one, and boy when she
Continued on page 18
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Growing up on Lake Winnipeg
A continuation of David Arnason's interview with Humphrey and Inga Olson