Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.09.2006, Page 1

Rekindling
the fire
$2Single copy price:
Is blood
thicker?
Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson’s
new movie Blóðbönd (above),
now playing in Toronto, ex-
plores family ties / page 11
PHOTO COURTESY ÁSTA SÓL KRISTJÁNSDÓTTIR
North Americans of
all ages explore their roots
through the Snorri Program
and Snorri Plus / pages 8, 9
PHOTO COURTESY OF KAREN OLAFSON
Tour sparks
reunion
A tour group from Iceland
sparked a reunion in Wynyard,
SK for descendants of Jón
from Myri / page 2
Publication Mail Agreement No. 40012014, PAP # 8000 ISSN 0047-4967
LÖGBERG
HEIMSKRINGLA
The Icelandic Community Newspaper • Friday 15 September 2006 • Number 18 / Númer 18 • Föstudagur 15. september 2006
INSIDE
i l
ri :
PHOTO COURTESY OF PEGASUS PICTURES
Visit us on the web at http://www.lh-inc.ca
Lou Howard,
President, Friends of Iceland

The Ottawa Chapter of the
Icelandic National League,
Friends of Iceland (FOI), and the
Embassy of Iceland are planning
to honour the contribution to
Iceland of Canadians of Icelan-
dic descent and other Canadians
who served during the Second
World War. The ceremony will
take place at the Cartier Drill
Hall, Ottawa, on October 21.
The Cameron Highlanders
of Ottawa (MG) were among
the first Canadian regiments to
arrive in Iceland in July 1940
to take up the responsibility of
Home Guard. Sadly, some of
them died and are buried in Ice-
land. The regiment was there
for one year and was replaced,
then went on to other phases of
the war in Europe, continuing its
distinguished history in battle.
The Royal Regiment of Can-
ada arrived in Iceland on 16 June
1940 and Les Fusiliers Mont-
Royal arrived on 7 July 1940.
All three Regiments have been
invited to send representatives to
this ceremony. The Royal Cana-
dian Air Force flew out of Ice-
land, and representatives have
been invited.
For those of us who were
in the Navy on convoy duty,
our jobs would have been very
much more difficult if Germany,
and not Canada, had been based
in Iceland. I was the Naviga-
tion Officer on HMCS Sarnia,
on convoy duty, taking loaded
freighters from Canada to join
up with the Mid Atlantic Escort
Group. We then took the emp-
ties back to Boston, Sydney or
Halifax. Many times we fought
off submarines based in Norway
or France. I wonder how many
more submarines we would have
encountered if they had been
based in Iceland!
The HMCS Skeena foun-
dered in a bad storm off the coast
Ottawa to honour
Canadian veterans
CHICAGO, IL — Anna
Jóelsdóttir’s solo show, hei-
ma? / home?, an exhibition
featuring new paintings and
installation, opened at the Zg
Gallery on September 8.
Born and raised in Ice-
land, Anna Jóelsdóttir re-
ceived her M.F.A. at The
School of the Art Institute of
Chicago and her B.Ed., at the
University Teachers College
of Iceland. She has had solo
exhibitions at the Museum of
Contemporary Art, Chicago,
ASI Art Museum, Reykja-
vik, Iceland and at the Haf-
narborg Institute in Iceland.
Her paintings are inspired
by the distinctive landscapes
of both Iceland and the Unit-
ed States.
In heima? / home? she in-
vestigates cognitive, cultural
and visual dislocation and
dissonance born out of her
experience trying to adjust to
a different language, culture
and geography.
Anna Jóelsdóttir’s paint-
ings are characterized by
bold use of colour and lines
against stark white ground.
“I paint hard edge structures
of stripes, paths and frag-
ments of something larger,”
she says.
The addition of ink draw-
ings to her paintings express
“both controlled and cha-
otic fragments of interrupted
lines, structures, signs and
symbols,” which, she says
“distort vision, interrupt
time and echo space like our
memories do.”
No longer living in an
expansive landscape of gla-
ciers, hot springs and active
lava deserts, or speaking in
her native language, Anna
Jóelsdóttir must constantly
balance the daily dislocation
and bridge the gaps of “hei-
ma / home.
For more information,
see the Calendar of Events.
Anna Jóelsdóttir opens
solo show in Chicago
The Winnipeg Falcons will be featured in the new television series Hockey:
A People’s History to air on
CBC Television this month.
The series was produced by
Mark Starowicz and the award-
winning team who created the
acclaimed series Canada: A
People’s History.
The Winnipeg Falcons, a
predominantly Icelandic hockey
team, won international acclaim
when they overcame prejudice
to compete in the 1920 Olym-
pics in Antwerp, winning the
first Gold Medal for hockey.
The critical game between
Canada and Sweden in the final
round was restaged for the se-
ries last year.
Brian Johannesson, a de-
scendent of one of the original
Falcons, Konnie Johannesson,
commends the accuracy of the
recreation. He notes “the Fal-
cons were represented by three
excellent hockey-playing ac-
tors, as was Sweden.”
The first two episodes of
Hockey: A People’s History will
premiere on Sunday 17 Septem-
ber, at 8 p.m. on CBC. The third
episode, featuring the Winnipeg
Falcons, will be broadcast Sun-
day 24 September at 8 p.m.
For more information, visit
www.cbc.ca/hockeyhistory/.
Falcons fly on CBC
IMAGE COURTESY OF ZG GALLERY
Gallery view of Anna Jóels-
dóttir’s “day journal” and
“7 Sticks on pedestal.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN JOHANNESSON
Actors recreate the Olympic Canada-Sweden game.
Continued on page 15