29 September 2025
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Recording available: New Iceland in Canada - 150th Anniversary Reflections Webinar

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Click HERE for the recording from the event on September 29th, 2025

In 1875, Canada established a reserve for Icelandic immigrants on the shores of Lake Winnipeg that the Icelanders called Nýja Ísland (New Iceland). As  Parks Canada  notes on a historic monument in Gimli, Manitoba, "New Iceland represents a distinctive episode in the early settlement of the Canadian West." Timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the founding of New Iceland, this webinar offers fresh insights into Icelandic emigration to Canada in the 1870s. In addition to exploring the push and pull factors that led to the foundation of New Iceland on the Western shores of Lake Winnipeg, the webinar also addresses the Icelandic emigrants' relations with Indigenous peoples, an important area of new historical research.

 

Agenda

11:30:  Welcome

11:30-12:05:New Iceland in Canada: 150th Anniversary Reflections

  • The Icelandic Emigration to the Americas 1860-1914 From an International Perspective:  Dr. Ólöf Garðarsdóttir, Professor in Social History, Dean of School, School of Humanities, University of Iceland
  • Canada and Icelandic Immigration in the 1870s :  Dr. Ryan Eyford, Associate Professor, Department of History, The University of Winnipeg

12:05-12:30:  D iscussion  and Q&A

Moderator:  Valgeir Thorvaldsson, Founder, The Icelandic Emigration Center at Hofsós

12:30:  Closing Remarks

 

Dr.  Ólöf Garðarsdóttir  is a Professor in Social History and the Dean of the School of Humanities at the University of Iceland. Her main research focus has been in the field of demographics and family history. Dr. Garðarsdóttir is a widely published author on migration, fertility, the history of health and public health, with emphasis on infant health, but also on childhood and the history of education.

Dr. Ryan Eyford  is an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Winnipeg. He is the author of  White Settler Reserve: New Iceland and the Colonization of the Canadian West  (UBC Press, 2016).

Tags

Embassy of Iceland in Ottawa