Ræða Katrínar Jakobsdóttur, forsætisráðherra, í Gimli 6. ágúst 2018
Toast to Canada on Íslendingadagurinn, August 6th, 2018
Kæru vinir, dear friends!
It is a great pleasure for me and my husband Gunnar to join you all here today at the 129th Islendingadagurinn and I am honoured to bring you the very best wishes and congratulations from the Government and from the People of Iceland.
Now we have been here in Gimli since Saturday evening and it has been a remarkable experience. Yesterday morning we went to the White Rock where the first Icelandic settlers arrived in 1875 and I could really understand why they called this place Gimli – the name of the pagan heaven as it is described in Snorra-Edda. This new land must have been so very different from Iceland, flat and green, but still it must have been tough. Reading letters from these Icelandic settlers is really very moving, where they described the cold, hars work and diseases but still they firmly kept on to their belief in a better future – which is probably very characteristic for both Icelanders and Canadians.
Icelanders have long been interested in our history and genealogy. I think it’s fair to say that it is only surpassed by our nearly unhealthy interest in the weather – which maybe is understandable given the fact that on any given day we have to dress appropriately for any of the four seasons. You recognize an Icelander abroad because he is carrying an umbrella and a snowsuit when the sun is shining because we always expect the weather to change.
But the strong interest of Icelanders in history and genealogy is clearly visible in the ancient Icelandic Sagas, which often have long chapters reciting how everybody is related to each other. The sagas and the medieval past were an invaluable strength in Iceland´s struggle for independence and existence through the hardship of past centuries. But the interest in genealogy has blossomed in recent years with new media. Today people will go online when meeting a new person and open the Íslendingabók database to figure out how they are related. We have this curiosity to know our relatives, even if they are just very distant and live in other countries.
Icelanders celebrate the centenary of Icelandic independence and sovereignty this year, in 2018. On December 1st 1918, the Union Treaty with Denmark took effect and Iceland was no longer “an inalienable part of the Danish realm,” but a free, sovereign nation, in personal union with Denmark under the same king and collaborating on various matters, such as foreign affairs and protection of territorial waters. On this same day, Iceland celebrated its attainment, by royal decree, of a recognized national flag. Then, as was our right under the Union Treaty and as a sovereign nation, Iceland went on to become a republic on June 17th 1944, symbolically choosing Jón Sigurðsson´s birthday, for the historic event.
The statue of Jón Sigurðsson was the first statue to be erected on the current Legislative Building grounds in Winnipeg, after Queen Victoria´s statue was repositioned in front of the building. This shows the unique bonds that exist between Manitoba, Canada and Iceland, that only two identical statues of Jón Sigurðsson exist, one at Austurvöllur, directly in front of the Althingi – the Icelandic Parliament – and the other in Winnipeg, the capital of Manitoba. It is a somewhat uncanny experience for an Icelander to come to Broadway in Winnipeg and face Jón here, since he is so familiar and yet strange in this new context and on a much lower pedestal than in Iceland. This, I feel, offers a unique insight into the place of Iceland and our nation here in the larger world.
In Iceland, we have come a long way since 1918, as can be seen when we look at increase in life expectancy, an improved health care system and social security. Immense progress has also been made in gender equality and human rights, which the government regards as a priority and is also a matter close to my heart. Now, when we look back and celebrate a century of sovereignty, we have a lot to take pride in. Equipped with the experience of the past we must look to the future, determined to learn from that experience and do even better.
The government I am heading in Iceland, with parties spanning the political spectrum from left to right, intends to establish a new tone in Icelandic politics; rejecting the polarization that is such a strong tendency in todays politics, and ensuring that the economic growth in Iceland will bring prosperity to all people in Iceland so it will continue to be a good place to live for young and old alike.
My government strongly believes that Iceland can make its voice heard in the international arena by being a role model when it comes to gender equality, where there is still room for improvement, for example by fighting gender based violence, and by setting itself ambitious targets in combatting climate change and heading for carbon neutrality in 2040, by protecting its unspoiled natural vistas and by striving to ensure equal opportunities and standing in a time where inequality is increasing on a global scale.
Iceland knows, being a small country, that good relations with your neighbours are essential. Iceland is a small country and therefore we have always known that international co-operation is essential. Eversince the scaldic poets sailed to Norway to recite their poems to Norwegian kings, we have known that our culture is built on interaction between different peoples and different cultures.
Iceland and Canada share a common vision in today´s globalized world, based on the same basic principles of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. For example, Canada and Iceland were among the first states in the world to make marriage gender neutral. Our relations have developed through the years. We are members of the same international organizations; our commercial exchanges are mutually beneficial, we cooperate in technology, such as geothermal energy and mutual tourism is on the rise.
In order to nurture our common origins and preserve our heritages, the knowledge of languages is important and the establishment of the Department of Icelandic Language and Literature at the University of Manitoba in 1951 was a major event for the study of Icelandic in the Western hemisphere. The Department has long been of much importance to the relationship between Iceland and Manitoba and we hope it will continue to thrive. Let me use this opportunity, to reiterate the support of the Icelandic government for the University of Iceland’s endeavor to continue to grow the collaboration with the University of Manitoba and the Icelandic department, on the basis of the partnership agreement from 1999. This agreement created a series of conferences to examine the relationship between Iceland and Canada. It is important to bring together students and professors in both countries and put them in contact with the communities in Manitoba and Iceland that are interested in this heritage.
The literature of Icelanders who emigrated to Canada is highly valued in Iceland, with Stephan G. Stephansson in particular enjoying the status of a national poet. Many Icelanders are also familiar with the work of Jóhann Magnús Bjarnason, Guttormur J. Guttormsson and Jakobína Johnson.
Not many people know that but the history of Icelandic crime fiction actually started here, in the settlements of Icelanders in North-America, the first translated crime novel was translated into Icelandic and published by Lögberg in Winnipeg, and the first Icelandic crime novel, which was called An Icelandic Sherlock Holmes by Jóhann Magnús Bjarnason, was actually set in Nova Scotia.
Today we have also exciting poets of a different form such as film-maker Guy Maddin, whom I met yesterday evening, also of Icelandic discent. And yesterday evening, talking to all that wonderful people, I became convinced that we have a solid ground in the past but maybe the most important project is to think about today and the future, cherish the relations of our young people and listen to todays poets, writers and artists who are working on that solid ground but putting it in a new perspective.
Icelanders have always maintained a caring interest in their relatives who emigrated. In the past few decades, several Icelanders have taken advantage of new technology and have located their relatives in the West. I was fortunate enough to meet twice my relative Kristrún Turner who passed away recently at the age of 98, and her three daughters who had found their Icelandic family through the wonders of modern communications. Kristrún, who spoke flawless Icelandic, lived in Winnipeg but was born in Saskatchewan and this is a reminder that the Icelandic immigrants are not only here in Manitoba, though their presence here is far the most prominent, but also in other parts of Canada, such as Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario.
The first Icelandic settlers’ journey to North America must have seemed like a trip to another world while the people left behind in Iceland surely did not expect to see any relatives and friends who emigrated ever again. Now the world has changed, it´sgetting smaller with all the modern communication technology, so the distance between friends is not but a short way to the city. Therefore, there is no obstacle today to maintaining close and strong relations across the ocean.
Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends, kæru vinir.
Let me thank you again for inviting me and my husband to join you at this year´s Icelandic Festival of Manitoba – Íslendingadagurinn -.
I would like to finish by reading a poem from a book of poems titled “Römm er sú taug” (A strong bond) by the New Iceland poet, Friðrik Pétur Sigurðsson, from Fagridalur in the Arborg District, known locally as “Friggi í Fagradal” who died in 1956. This poem describes well the bonds that bind people like us together in love and loyalty to the land and culture of our birth and our forefathers´ birth.
Allow me to read it first in Icelandic:
Hjá okkur lifi alla daga
íslenskt mál og fögur ljóð,
íslensk fræði, íslensk saga,
íslenskt meðan rennur blóð.
In the English translation by the farmer, translator and poet you all know, David Gislason, from Arborg, Manitoba, the poem reads like this:
We keep the ancient language living,
Daily logic, daily lore
While Iceland's poetry keeps lending
Blood and body to the core!
“Takk fyrir og góða skemmtun”.