The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2008, Side 35

Vol. 61 #4
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
173
Icelandic clothing in Canada
by Peggy Barker
edited and updated by Elva Jonasson
The Icelandic immigration was the sec-
ond influx of non-French or English into
Manitoba. They came for many reasons.
There was of course the 800-year-old con-
nection (via Leifur Eirfksson) between
Iceland and the New World and possibly
the Old Norse wanderlust and desire for
adventure. More immediately however,
was the stranglehold Icelanders felt Danish
rule to be in the areas of economic and
political autonomy. To them Canada and
the United States appeared to be, as to
many others, the lands of opportunity. The
tide of immigration from Iceland was cer-
tainly affected too by the general worsen-
ing, during the 19th century, of climatic
conditions and the eruption of volcanoes in
Central Iceland in 1876. In some cases the
existence of public schools has been cited as
a contributory factor important to a people
who place high value on education.
Whatever the reasons, between the
years 1870 and 1900 about one-third of
Iceland’s population, between 25,000 and
30,000 people, left Iceland for either
Canada or the United States. Today it is
estimated that there are approximately
150,000 people of Icelandic origin in North
America, of whom 100,000 live in Canada.
Winnipeg has the largest urban population
of Icelanders outside of Iceland.
The first Icelandic settlement in
Canada was in 1873 in Ontario. However,
for one reason or another this was largely
abandoned, so the first permanent settle-
ment dates from 1875, when the first set-
tlers arrived in Gimli. There were a number
of reasons for choosing Gimli. The prox-
imity to Lake Winnipeg was obviously
important to a seafaring race. The
Icelanders could not conceive of strict grain
farming so the gently rolling brush inter-
spersed with hay meadows suitable for
mixed farming, was to them a much better
prospect than the prairies to the south of
Winnipeg. Finally in 1875, when a commit-
tee was in Winnipeg scouting suitable sites
for “New Iceland,” Winnipeg was struck
by a plague of grasshoppers and the area
around what is now Gimli was free of
them.
This was a pattern that was often
repeated in other Icelandic settlements. In
general these soils were poorer than the
prairies but, in times when the wheat crop
or market failed the Icelanders were able to
cope better because they were not strictly
dependent on one crop. This practice of
mixed farming also enabled them, as we
shall see later, to maintain some of their tra-
ditional clothing patterns.
The settlement at New Iceland, which
was initially outside the boundaries of the
then “Postage Stamp Province” of
Manitoba, was intended to be an Icelandic
colony, where the Icelandic people could
carry on their own way of life. In fact, for
several years they operated the settlement
as a republic with loose connections with
the province of Manitoba. Eventually this
effort was given up and New Iceland was
annexed when the province’s boundaries
were enlarged in 1881. Later settlements
were not made on separate tracts of land.
Rather a number of Icelandic settlers
would choose an area and take up land in
the same general vicinity. There would be
settlers of other origins in the same dis-
tricts.
Today the main concentration of
Icelanders is still on the west shore of Lake
Winnipeg in the Gimli area. However there
are sizable groups in: southwest Manitoba
around Baldur and Glenboro: on the east
shore of Lake Manitoba centered on
Ashern and Steep Rock: on the west shore
of Lake Manitoba with Langruth and
Winnipegosis as centres: in Selkirk: and in