The Icelandic Canadian - 01.10.2002, Side 14

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 57 #2
the Land: Change among the Inuit of
Baffin Island describing the cultural
changes. It was my swan song for my
Arctic research. The book describes a
tremendous change in the people them-
selves. It is a very personalized ethnogra-
phy, as I am giving my own experiences of
living on the land. I tried to follow them as
they moved into settlements. I continually
went back to Pond Inlet.
I worked with the Inuit for many,
many years. I like to think that I developed
a reputation of being an Inuit expert. Many
journal pieces and grant applications were
forwarded to me for scrutiny. With the
publication of my book, I felt that the Inuit
were at the stage where they are capable of
studying themselves, bringing with that a
higher respectability.
Since then I have been studying
Icelanders. I feel much closer to home
studying my people, my ethnic roots. My
Icelandic roots are very strong. I am trying
to look at Western Icelanders in connection
with the Icelandic psyche from an anthro-
pological perspective.
I'll give you a little anecdote. A very
dear friend of mine, Don Swainson (we
went to school and University together)
was very active in the NDP party, called
the CCF at that time. As we would get
together for a hamburger and milkshake
and argue—in the best Icelandic tradition,
Don remarked "Matthiasson, you always
take the opposite point of view in any
debate, but I know what your position is!"
I did enjoy debate but I never affiliated
myself with any political party.
I was born in the United States, com-
ing to Canada at age seven. There was a cer-
tain amount of anti American feeling in
Winnipeg, due to the slow entrance of the
US into the WW2. I can remember being
called a " dirty American" and it hurt. Kids
picked this up from their parents. My
father was an American and had passed
away there. I returned to the US when I
was 18. I cannot vote in Canada. I have
seriously thought of taking Canadian citi-
zenship in the last few years. I was also at
the University of Manitoba in the post
Sputnik era and most of the social science
professors were American. I was bothered
by the fact that we were contributing
something to Canada and not being recog-
nized for it. These factors aside, I have
always kept my American citizenship. I did
vote once in a national election for John F.
Kennedy. It was his first round. He was
campaigning and came to Michigan State
while I was a student there. It was the only
time I voted and I am proud that I voted
for him.
I've been called a humanist many
times. Now I find myself to be in the secu-
lar humanist movement. There was a sym-
posium at the University of Waterloo a few
years ago, where people were invited to
attend on the basis of their writings. I asked
why I had been invited and the answer was
that they had read much of my work and
found it very humanistic. This pleased me
very much. Those attending were sociolo-
gists, theologists as well as some prominent
professionals and some academics such as
myself. Now I am very flattered by this
because I feel anthropology is not as much
a science as an art. One of the things, before
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