The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.2005, Side 15

Vol. 59 #4
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
141
ual or the group had anticipated, qualities
which provided needed strength and unity
in the years that lay ahead.”
This area has a rich history in the arts,
entertainment and sports, literature, poet-
ry, music and live theatre. All were very
important to the original settlers. The
Vatnabyggd area developed many excellent
sports teams, friendly and not so friendly
rivalries quickly developed.
Our Icelandic ties are still strong. My
nephew, Ryan Leier has spent the last two
years in Iceland playing basketball for a
club team. He brought me back an
Icelandic hockey sweater which has a tiny
maple leaf at the bottom of the crest. This is
in honour of the Winnipeg Falcons, the
Canadian team that won the first ever
hockey gold medal in France in 1920. The
Falcons were an all-Icelandic team, except
for the goalie, that was formed since no one
else would play the “ goulies” . Canada has
had excellent success over the years in
International hockey, but the Winnipeg
Falcons were the first. Typical of
Icelanders, it didn’t matter that the Falcons
were in Winnipeg, we considered them our
team and still do.
Ties to Iceland are many and varied.
For example, in 1913, Paul Bjarnason, a car
dealer and realtor in Wynyard bought a
Ford car and shipped it to Iceland and so
began the era of the automobile in Iceland.
The Vatnabyggd area could be seen as
a microcosm of our Saskatchewan
Province. Originally it was homesteaded
and heavily populated in the rural areas. As
time has gone on, rural villages, and ham-
lets have declined and larger trading centres
with some industry have developed. Today
in the west of the area, Dafoe and Kandahar
have all but disappeared. But Wynyard
continues to thrive and prosper.
Saskatchewan’s most important export and
contribution to the rest of Canada have
been our people. The Vatnabyggd area is
no different. Some of the ideas and beleifs
that were developed in this area con-
tributed to a society that values co-opera-
tive achievement of my fellow countrymen
and compare them with those of other peo-
ple, I cannot but reach the conclusion that
Icelanders are a step ahead of others in
community activities.
Icelanders in the area were movers and
shakers in the early community as farmers,
merchants, entrepreneurs, professionals,
artists and poets. They continue to be so to
this day. H. J. Halldorson wrote in 1948
about the Vatnabyggd residents, “From my
own experience I can bear witness to it that
from the time of settlement in this commu-
nity, especially from the spring of 1905, it
may be said that there has been general
well-being among people all through and
probably is so yet, according to reliable
reports.”
I believe that in all of us we have an
inheritant innate subconscious knowledge
passed on by our forefathers. I can imagine
that the open prairie and wide open skies of
the Vatnabyggd area against the shores of
the Lakes appealed to our pioneers deep in
their souls and made them feel at home.
What did I learn as an Icelandic/
Canadian growing up and living in the
Vatnabyggd area?
Christopher Columbus as a “Johnny
come lately” by a few hundred years.
Other kids had grandparents, I had
Afis and Ammas.
Skyr is good but hardfish is better
Where is Winnipeg? Just south of
Gimli!
It is hard to explain, but I always knew
that being Icelandic was special. Being
proud of who you are and where you came
from is something I was taught from the
day that I was born.
LOCATED 1 1/4 Ml. SOUTH OF GIMLI ON #9 HIGHWAY
C.E.S. Sveinson Ltd.
DISTRIBUTOR OF MOST KINDS OF
“FRESHWATER FISH"
"SMOKED FISH"
bus. 642-8889 gimli, Manitoba
res. 642-8277 HOC ibo