Lögberg-Heimskringla - 10.09.2004, Qupperneq 6

6 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 10 September 2004
4 Rey kj av í k
feels like home ’
Steinþór Guðbjartsson
Montreal, QC
Four years ago, board
member of the Icelandic Club
of Quebec (ICC-Q) and travel
agent in Montreal Bernice Odd-
son Kinnon organized a trip to
Iceland for members of ICC-Q
and she is working on another
one for next summer. “I had 20
people for a 10-day trip in Ice-
land in 2000, people have been
asking for another visit and it is
time to go again,” she says.
Bernice is of Icelandic
descent on her matemal side.
She was born in Winnipeg,
Manitoba, went to the Universi-
ty of Saskatchewan in Saska-
toon and has iived in Montreal
for half a century.
“Love brought me here,”
she says, and points out that she
was a member of the Icelandic
Canadian Club of Quebec in
Montreal around the the time of
Expo ‘67, the Montreal World’s
Fair. “We were very active in
the 60s but the club did not live
long then,” she recalls, and
admits that now she has more
time to work for the club. “I
realize that I have to explain the
heritage to my children who are
very proud to be Icelandic. We
are a small and selective group
and we have to promote our-
selves. We also have to get the
next generation interested in the
heritage.”
Bemice has three grand-
daughters, 11, 15 and 17 years
old, and wants to get them into
the Snorri Program in Iceland
when they are old enough.
“They are very interested in the
Icelandic heritage,” she says.
“Emma is at the same age as
Susan Stephenson’s' daughter
Signe. Once they had to do a
PHOTÓ: STEINÞÓR GUÐBJARTSSON
Bernice Oddson Kinnon is a travel consultant at Westmount
Travel in Montreal and a board member of ICC-Q.
project in school about their
heritage. Both of them handed
in a project on Iceland and they
were equally surprised. They
looked at each other and said
simultaneously, ‘What, you
have an amma?”’
As a travel agent Bemice
gets to go to Iceland quite often.
“Reykjavík feels like home
because there I have people to
call and visit, but my Icelandic
is not good,” she says. During
the last three years the ICC-Q
has offered Icelandic lessons.
X
JLaefand
www.icelandnaturally.com
Visit our website to
fmd out more about lceland
Bemice has attended them as
well as everything “Icelandic”
in Montreal and plans to contin-
ue to participate in them this
winter. “I have bought the tape,
I have bought the books and I
have bought the big Icelandic
dictionary. Susan keeps us
informed about anything Ice-
landic, be it arts, travel shows,
or openings of stores with Ice-
landic goods, but I don’t speak
the language yet. With more
classes and more trips to Ice-
land I will eventually get it.”
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PHOTO: STEINÞÓR GUÐBJARTSSON
Salome Arnbjörnsdóttir Davidson with her daughters Katla
and Hekla in Montreal.
The right
atmosphere
Steinþór Guðbjartsson
Montreal, QC
Salome Arnbjörnsdóttir
Davidson has been an active
member in the Icelandic com-
munity in Montreal since she
came to the city to study fashion
design about 20 years ago. “It
all started with some people
from Iceland coming together
one summer,” she says. “We had
so much fun that we decided to
meet at least once a year. Later
we met Canadians of Icelandic
descent and we have kept com-
pany since.”
Soon after arriving in Mon-
treal Salome met her husband-
to-be Scott Davidson. They
have two daughters, Katla (15)
and Hekla (7), and Salome also
has a son, Arnbjöm (26). She
says that meeting people of Ice-
landic descent for the first time
was quite an experience.
“Guðrún Parker was one of the
first Canadians of Icelandic
descent I met, and her parents
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were bom in Iceland. She and
other people I later met knew so
much about the Icelandic cul-
ture, even though they had never
been to Iceland. We had a good
time together from the very
beginning and the group has
become larger with every year.”
Salome lives with her fam-
ily in Saint-Lazare between
Montreal and Ottawa. She vis-
its Iceland every year but has
no plans to move back there.
“Once I met an Icelandic
woman living here. She told me
that for a long time she had
been thinking of moving back
to Iceland. When her husband
died she decided to move to
Iceland only to fmd out that she
did not fit into the society any-
more, so she moved back to
Canada. Her message was
don’t think about moving back
and I think she was right. It is,
however, important to be close
to the family and I try to visit
my relatives and friends in Ice-
land once a year.”
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