Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.06.2012, Blaðsíða 15

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Lögberg-Heimskringla • 1. júní 2012 • 15
Embrace your heritage. That was the rallying cry of the 93rd Icelandic
National League convention.
I drove for three days from
Victoria, BC to Brandon, MB.
To embrace his heritage, Henry
Bjornsson drove from Seattle.
Claire Eckley was late coming
from Minneapolis because she
was caught in a storm. Joan
Eyolfson Cadham and friends
came from Foam Lake, Elfros
and Wynyard. The gathering of
the clan was taking place.
In Brandon, Harold and
Norma Jonasson, along with
Bob Isleifson and the club
volunteers, were taking care of
the last details, preparing for
over 170 attendees.
Over a year in the making,
the convention was coming
together.
At conventions, food mat-
ters and the free breakfasts
that had been arranged were
outstanding. I was fed ham and
cheese omelettes, vegetable
omelettes, light breakfasts of
peach yogurt with fruit. The
coffee was good enough to
please even Icelanders, the
world’s coffee connoisseurs.
There were coffee breaks
with pönnukökur, rúllupylsa,
vínarterta. The skyr with cream
and sugar was outstanding.
Entertainment is always
important. The Kaffi Tima choir
warmed up the crowd at the
meet and greet. Entertainment
is a way for a club to show off
young talent and the young
talent on show wowed the
crowd, none more so than Ari
Jakobson who styles himself
as a crooner. Heather Jonasson
presented a magical program
on the flute. The three national
anthems were sung by Heather
Jordan, accompanied by Theresa
Thordarson. That’s easy to say,
national anthems sung by…just
try singing, O Canada, The Star
Spangled Banner and Ó Guð
vors lands one after the other.
And do it well.
Awards are always a big
part of conventions. They’re
the once a year opportunity for
the Icelandic North American
community to honour people
who have worked for years as
volunteers. I was pleased to see
my friend Gunnthora receive
the Laurence Johnson Lifetime
Achievement Award.
There are the lectures and
speeches, of course. They
provide the backbone, the
justification for all this music and
eating and talking and hugging
and even kissing. Icelanders are
notorious kissers.
The presentation that had me
rapt was Ryan Eyford’s “It Seems
So Far Away to Iceland: The
Correspondence of the Taylor
Sisters, 1880-1930.” Everyone
knows about John Taylor, the
minister that led the Icelanders
from Kinmount to the promised
land of New Iceland. He had
three nieces. Susie married
a Lutheran minister, Haldor
Briem, and moved to Iceland.
She never returned to Canada.
Ryan is working with the letters
from her correspondence with
her sisters.
Alana Odegard gave a talk
on her seven years in Iceland.
She went through the things
about Iceland she misses, and
to much laughter, the oddities
of Icelandic society. She never
adjusted to svið. She discovered
that Icelanders don’t believe in
planning too far in advance.
Everyone dresses well. She
misses the ocean, the language,
Icelandic candy and the
swimming pools.
There was relief to hear
that the Snorri Program is fully
booked. Nelson is continuing
with his massive Silent Flashes
project. Lögberg-Heimskringla
is doing well. Harley Jonasson
laid out the ambitious Riverton
Heritage project. Johann
Sigurdson and David Collette
are organizing the Fara Heim
Expedition. They’re taking a
sailboat around the northern
seas searching for evidence
of Viking landings. If anyone
would like to join them,
they can do so by paying a
passenger’s fee. Peter Bjornson
and Tammy Axelsson reported
on the Gimli Heritage museum
and Peter is promoting a new
project of collecting rocks in
Iceland and Canada, shipping
them to the opposite country
and building cairns with them.
The heavyweights of the
conference were Donald K.
Johnson and Ambassador
Þórður Ægir Óskarsson. Don,
as he has so many times before,
contributed financially to the
conference. He explained the
current financial situation in
Iceland and spoke about the
possibility of Iceland adopting
the Canadian dollar. This was
Þórður Ægir Óskarsson’s first
INL convention. He has a good
sense of humour. Given the
financial situation of Iceland
and Europe, the effort needed
to deal with our many desires
and demands, he will need it.
The last day there was a
highly successful bus tour to
Bru and Grund.
As for me, I drove a long
way, it cost quite a bit, six
nights in hotels, gas, meals.
But I got to see a lot of friends,
had a chance to make many
more friends, caught up on
community news, heard a lot of
interesting talks, saw places I
hadn’t seen before. I even gave
a talk in which I got to expound
on life in 19th century Iceland,
one of my favorite topics, and
the major subject of my blog
site, wdvalgardsonkaffihus.
The convention flattered me
by choosing my book of Lake
Winnipeg folk tales, What The
Bear Said, for their online
reading club. Pretty hard to
beat that.
Next year the INL
convention is in Seattle. It’ll be
a shorter drive from Victoria. A
longer hike from Nova Scotia
or Ottawa. It’ll be worth the
trip. I’m sure of that. I’ll see
you there.
Conference overview
It was a party
PHoto: w.d. vaLgardson
Embracing our Icelandic culture – the 93rd INL of NA
convention Friday night opening ceremonies
W.D. Valgardson
Victoria, BC
Photo: leif norMan
Honorary lifetime Membership Presentations
Every year, clubs nominate potential recipients whose volunteer service to the Icelandic
community will be recognized with Honorary Life Memberships. The award goes back to 1919.
Back row L to R: Bob Isleifson, Brandon; Ray Johnson, Portage la Prairie; Candice Murphy,
Gimli; Ed Gillis, Brandon. Front row L to R: Helene Goodman, Calgary; Freda Olafson
accepting for Gordon McInnes, Brandon; Gunnthora Gísladóttir, Winnipeg; Agnes Cooke,
Calgary; Lorraine Hirst, Selkirk.
Photo: leif norMan
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