The Icelandic connection - 01.03.2018, Page 49

Vol. 70 #1
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
47
Contributors
ELEANOR AND EDWARD BILISKI. Eleanor was a child at the farm in North Dakota
where Kainn lived and worked. Eleanor was accompanied at the Symposium by her son
Edward.
HALLDORA BJARNASON.The daughter of Icelandic immigrant pioneers, first in New
Iceland, then later in the earliest days of the Icelandic immigrants in North Dakota. Her
written memoirs are held at the New Iceland Heritage Museum in Gimli, Manitoba.
SUNNA FURSTENAU is Past President of the Icelandic National League of North
America and founder of the Icelandic Roots on-line genealogy centre. Sunna grew up in the
North Dakota Icelandic-American community where Kainn lived and worked.
KRISTIN JOHANNSDOTTIR is a Professor at the University of Akureyri and a co-
coordinator of the Kainn Symposium.
KEVIN JON JOHNSON is an essayist and currently a teacher of English in Japan.
BODVAR GUDMUNDSSON is an author, historian and researcher into the Icelandic-
North American immigrant stories.
CHRISTINE HALL grew up on the Geir farm in North Dakota where Kainn lived and
worked.
JON HJALTASON is an Akureyri historian and a co-coordinator of the Kainn Symposium.
Editor’s note: Due to the uniqueness of this issue serving as the Proceedings of the
Akureyri Kainn Symposium, the conclusion of the Dr. Anne Brydon essay — "Dreams and
Claims: Icelandic-Aboriginal Interactions in the Manitoba Interlake" will be published in
the next issue.