Lögberg-Heimskringla - 07.05.1982, Síða 6

6 WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 7. MAÍ 1982
Lord Dufferin's visit to New Iceland
Continued from page 5
who I trust will do credit to the
epical ancestresses from whom they
have inherited their names. Many of
the houses I have visited to-day bore
evident signs in their airiness,
neatness, and well-ordered ap-
pearance of possessing a housewife
who had already profited from her
contact with the outer world. And
while I am upon this subject there is
one practical hint which I shall ven-
ture to make to you. Every single
house I have visited to-day, many of
them being mere temporary huts,
with at the most two small
chambers, was furnished with a
large close iron cooking-stove,
evidently used not merely for cook-
ing purposes, but also for heating
the habitation. I believe that this ar-
rangement is anything but
desirable, and that, at all events, in
those houses where a separate kit-
chen cannot be obtained, an open
fireplace should be introduced. I am
quite certain that if I were to come
amongst you in winter I should find
these stoves in full operation, and
every crevice in your shanties seal-
ed up from the outer air. Now you
are surrounded by an inexhaustible
supply of the best possible fuel,
which can be obtained with com-
paratively little labour, and conse-
quently economy of coal, which is
their chief recommendation, need
not drive you to an excessive use of
these unwholesome appliances. Our
winter air, though sufficiently keen,
is healthy and bracing, and a most
potent incentive to physical exer-
tion, whereas the mephitic vapours
of an overheated, closely-packed
chamber, paralyze our physical as
well as our mental activities. A con-
stitution nursed upon the oxygen of
our bright winter stmosphere makes
its owner feel as though he could
toss about the pine trees in his glee,
whereas to the sluggard simmering
over his stove-pipe, it is a horror and
a nameless hardship to put his nose
outside the door. I need not tell you
that in a country like this the one
virtue pre-eminently necessary to
every man is self-reliance, energy,
and a determination to conquer an
independent living for himself, his
wife and children by the unassisted
strength of his own right arm.
Unless each member of the settle-
ment is possessed and dominated by
this feeling, there can be no salva-
tion for anyone. But why need I
speak to Icelanders — to you men
and women of the grand old Norse
race, of the necessity of patience
under hardship, courage in the face
of danger, dogged determination in
the presence of difficulties. The an-
nals of your country are bright with
the records of your forefathers' no-
ble endurance. The sons and
daughters of the men and women
who crossed the Arctic Ocean in
open boats and preferred to make
their homes amid the snows and
cinders of a volcano rather than en-
joy peace and plenty under the iron
sway of a despot, may afford to
smile at anyone who talks to them
of hardship or rough living beneath
the pleasant shade of these murmur-
ing branches and beside the
laughing ripples of yonder shining
lake. The change now taking place
in your fortunes is the very converse
and opposite of that which béfell
your forefathers. They fled from
their pleasant homes and golden
corn-fields into a howling
wilderness of storm and darkness,
Just plain Canadian?
by Nelson Gerrard
How do you answer when asked
about your nationality? Are we
"Icelandic-Canadians'' or "Just
plain Canadians"?
It would be the consensus of the
vast majority that we are all true
Canadians, in every sense of the
word. Born in this country, and rais-
ed with its institutions, we are so
much an integral part of Canada and
its heritage that we often take it for
granted. Yes,
"Icelandic-Canadians" are unques-
tionably as Canadian as the beaver,
the Mounties and the maple leaf.
The fact of our true identity lies
not in the labels we give ourselves,
nor in patriotic oaths or pageantry.
We are Canadians by virtue of the
contributions of our forefathers and
of our own daily lives.
Why, then, use a term "Icelandic-
Canadian" rather than "just plain
Canadian"! With the recent crisis in
Canada's unity, this suspicion-laden
challenge has come back to haunt all
Canadians once again, revived from
the colonial and postwar eras when
being Canadian meant becoming in-
conspicuous among the dominant
elements of the population. One
might, by the same token, question
the validity of distinguishing bet-
ween tea and coffee, or hot and
cold.
Such terms as "Icelandic-
Canadian", Ukrainian-Canadian"
or "French-Canadian" are merely
specific answers to speeific ques-
tions pertaining to ancestral origin.
Neither these, nor any other distinc-
tions between the millions of Cana-
dians, male and female, tall and
short, farmers and businessmen,
should carry any inherent positve or
negative overtones. It would be a
dull world indeed if we could not,
for fear of being un-Canadian, allow
ourselves the simple luxury of mak-
ing such distinctions.
The "Just plain Canadian" school-
of-thought is a well-intentioned but
invalid doctrine espoused by those
who see it as the solution to racial
problems and disunion. Many feel
that the answer to these problems is
for all of us to forget such things as
cultural identity. Others believe the
trouble would melt away if
everyone would learn the languages
of the so-called "two founding
races". StilJ others have even
simpler solutions.
In fact, the division within
Canada is almost wholly political
and economic. Culture, which after
all is only an expression of the
human need for pleasure and con-
tinuity, has simply become a "cry to
arms" for certain political groups,
and a scapegoat for others.
The "Just plain Canadian'' cliché
is just that, a handy catch-phrase us-
ed and reused to dispense with a
bothersome issue that few care
enough about to examine in any
depth. Such thinking carries with it
the implication that Canada's
cultural wealth is a liability rather
than an asset; it suggests that
Canada’s true heritage, comprising
a cultural "mosaic" of all our foun-
ding races, is of no significant value,
and should be discarded, the sooner
the better. It equates making a sim-
ple distinction, with racism and pre-
judice, and it concludes that there is
no room for differences among
Canadians.
While the apathy which spawns
such thinking prevails, true
understanding and unity will con-
tinue to elude us, and the potential
for harmony among the people of
Canada and the world will never be
realized; for as long as there are peo-
ple, there will be diversity. The
move to elimiqate the differences is
not the solution to the problem, it is
the problem.
The term "nationality" (for lack
of a better word) is commonly used
by Canadians in reference to the
country or countries of ancestral
origin, giving rise to such definitives
as "Icelandic-Canadian", étc.
Although Canadians travelling
abroad will quickly respond to a
question of "Nationality" with
"Canadian", in consideration of the
understood meaning of the ques-
tion, at home there is a silent divi-
sion into two camps — those who
answer the question as it is asked,
and those who insist on restating the
obvious, protesting that they are
"Just plain Canadians".
We are all Canadians, but not
"Just plain Canadians"; each of us
has a unique contribution to make
and our heritage is one aspect of our
individuality, one that should be a
source of pride, inspiration and en-.
joyment rather than an issue of con-
tention or shame. Canada affords us
the freedom and dignity to
acknowledge the culture of our
ancestors; that is, after all, one of
the benefits of being a Canadian.
Courtesy of the Icelandic Canadian
ice and lava, but you I am welcom-
ing to the healthiest climate on the
continent, and to a soil of unexampl-
ed fertility, which a litle honest in-
dustry on your part will soon turn
into a garden of plenty. Nor do we
forget that no race has a better right
to come amongst us than
yourselves, for it is probably to the
hardihood of the Icelandic
navig^tors that the world is in-
debted for the discover of this conti-
nent. Had not Columbus visited
your island and discovered in your
records a practical and absolute con-
firmation of his own brilliant
speculations in regard to the ex-
istence of a western land, it is possi-
ble he might never have had the
enterprise to tempt the unknown
Atlantic. Again, then, I welcome
you to this country — a country in
which you will find yourselves
freemen serving no overlord, and
being no man's men but your own;
each, master of his own farm, like
the 'Udalmen' and 'Boenders' of old
days; and remember that in coming
amongst us, you will find
yourselves associated with a race
both kindly-hearted and cognate to
your own, nor in becoming
Englishmen and subjects of Queen
Victoria need you forget your own
time-honoured customs or the pic-
turesque annals of your forefathers.
On the contrary, I trust you will
continue to cherish for all time the
heart-stirring literature of your na-
tion, and that from generation to
generation your little ones will con-
tinue to learn in your ancient Sagas
that industry, energy, fortitude,
perseverance, and stubborn en-
durance have ever been the
characteristics of the noble Icelan-
dic race. I have pledged my personal
credit to my Canadian friends on the
successful develoþment of your set-
tlement. My warmest and most af-
fectionate sympathies attend you,
and I have not the slightest misgiv-
ing but that in spite of your enter-
prise being conducted under what
of necessity are somewhat disad-
vantageous conditions, not only will
your future prove bright and pro-
sperous, but that it will be univer-
sally acknowledged that a more
valuable accesion to the in-
telligence, patriotism, loyalty, in-
dustry, and strength of the country
has never been introduced into the
Dominion."
ICELANDIC
CANADIAN FRÓN
Send membership fee of
$5.00 single or $10.00 family
to
Post Office Box No. 1
1871 Portagc Avenue
Winnipeg, Man.
R3J 0H0