Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.11.2018, Side 1

LÖGBERG
HEIMSKRINGLA
The Icelandic Community Newspaper • 1 November 2018 • Number 21 / Númer 21 • 1. nóvember 2018
Publication Mail Agreement No. 40012014 ISSN: 0047-4967
VISIT OUR WEBSITE LH-INC.CA
evening of lights
Tribute Dinner in Honour of
Past Presidents, Directors,
Editors, & Volunteers
of Lögberg-Heimskringla, Inc.
Friday, November 9, 2018
Cocktails: 6:00 p.m. (cash bar)
Dinner and Program: 7:00 p.m.
Holiday Inn Winnipeg South
1330 Pembina Highway | Winnipeg, MB
More information inside...Buffet Dinner | Entertainment & Dancing | Prizes & Draws
evening of lights
in Honour of
Past Presidents, Directors, Editors, & Volunteers
of Lögberg-Heimskringla, Inc.
Friday, November 9, 2018
Cocktails: 6:00 p.m. (cash bar)
Dinner and Program: 7:00 p.m.
Holiday Inn Winnipeg South
1330 Pembina Highway | Winnipeg, MB
Price: $90 (includes $35 tax receipt)
Business Attire and Decorations
Dietary needs: email: LH@LH-INC.CA
For tickets
Contact Lögberg-Heimskringla
204-927-5645 or
LH@LH-INC.CA or
online at WWW.LH-INC.CA
Deadline for ticket purchase is
November 2, 2018
Tickets Available Now
Grant Stefanson, President/Vice President
Julianna Bjornson, President/Vice President
Bill Perlmutter, Treasurer
Elva Jonasson, Secretary
Brian Tomasson, Director
Dr. Allan Johnson, Director
Dr. Lyle Hillman, Director
Dr. Ron Goodman, Director
Ernest Stefanson, Director
Margaret Kernested, Director
Skuli Sigfusson, Director
Vi Hilton Bjarnason, Director
Evelyn Thorvaldson, Director – In Memory
Garry Oddleifson, Director – In Memory
J. S. Laxdal, Director – In Memory
The Honourable Kris Stefanson, Director – In Memory
Walter Sopher, Director – In Memory
Bill Valgardson, Editor
Caelum Vatsndal, Editor
David Fuller, Editor
Gunnor Isfeld, Editor
Steinthor Gudbjartson, Editor
Joan Eyolfson Cadham, Editor – In Memory
Lillian Vilborg MacPherson, Editor – In Memory
Ragnar Bergman, Director – In Memory
Arni Thorsteinson, Senior Subscription Sponsor
Buffet Dinner
Entertainment & Dancing
Prizes & Draws
Entertainment by Icelandic DJ Kent Gudmundson
INSIDE
Inspiration for a documentary
/ page 7
The Long Friday
PHOTO: STEFAN JONASSON
Icelanders who’ve made a
difference / pages 10-12
Ljósanótt
honourees
PHOTO: WESTWIND PHOTOGRAPHY
W.D. Valgardson on being
Icelandic / pages 14-15
Things we
care about
PHOTO: W.D. VALGARDSON
Stefan Jonasson
About 60 people strolled through the sunshine on the annual
Walk to the Rock at Gimli on Sunday, October 21, 2018.
Participants met at the Gimli Waterfront Centre, home of
the New Iceland Heritage Museum, and made the 3.5-kilometre
walk to the monument on Willow Point that commemorates the
landing of the first Icelandic settlers on that day in 1875.
At the white rock, Dilla Narfason spoke briefly about the
significance of the day and Sandra Kolomic read a poem by her
father, Don Martin, for the occasion. Among those attending this
year’s event were Ruth Christie, the great-granddaughter of John
Ramsay, the Indigenous leader who is remembered for having been
so helpful to the Icelandic settlers, and Terry MacLeod, former
CBC radio host and all-around Icelandophile, who happened to be
in the vicinity that weekend.
Following the walk, participants returned to town where there
was a reception in Johnson Hall atop the Waterfront Centre. Dilla
Narfason was emcee for the short program at the hall, which
included greetings from Chris Brooks, past president of the New
Iceland Heritage Museum, Daphne Markusson, president of the
Gimli Icelandic Canadian Society, and Jeff Wharton, Membe of
the Legislative Assembly for Gimli. They spoke about the trials
of the first Icelandic settlers in the area and each added a pers nal
note to the occasion.
Dilla Narfason shared her own childhoo exper nce of
meeting Sigríður Ólafsdóttir, one of the pioneers on 1875. fact,
Sigríður gave birth to the first Icelandic child born in the new
settlement, Jón Ólafur Jóhannsson. Dilla remembe s meeting
Sigríður when she accompanied her father to pick up the milk at
the elderly woman’s farm. Dilla’s father often stopped for a cup of
coffee at Sigríður’s home and Dilla remembers Sigríður giving her
a bit of porridge as a treat that day, even though she wasn’t very
fond of porridge at the time.
The annual Walk to the Rock began simply enough in 1975,
when three descendants of Sigríður decided to honour their
forbears on the centennial of the Icelandic settlers’ arrival at Willow
Point by walking from the town to the memorial that marks the
settlers’ landing place. From family and friends, this simple act of
reverence has grown to encompass the whole community over the
past 43 years. When the event falls on a weekday, the crowd often
swells with schoolchildre who join the regulars on this annual
pilgrimage.
Twenty-five years after the first Walk to the Rock, former
Lögberg-Heimskringla editor Lillian Vilborg MacPherson noted
that, back in 1875, the original settlers would have walked in the
opposite direction – from the white rock to where the town of Gimli
now stands. Calling to mind her own great-grandparents, who were
among the original settlers, Lillian wrote: “I thought about the
relief they must feel to be at the end of this long trip to Nýja Ísland.
I wonder d if they were looking forward to building their dream
home on the lake or whether they were too exhausted to even think
about it.” Strolling back in time on such a pleasant afternoon this
year, in contrast to the stormy weather that greeted the settlers and
which so often reprises itself on each year’s anniversary, it was
natural to think of the original settlers and wonder if they could
have even imagined the good fortune that would one day embrace
their descendants in a new land.
Sunshine brightens this year’s Walk to the Rock
PHOTOS: STEFAN JONASSON