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 Nýja Ísland 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.

This event is the latest in an ongoing series of webinars organized by the embassies of Canada in Reykjavík and Iceland in Ottawa. In addition to our main speakers, the webinar will also include remarks by Canada’s Ambassador to Iceland, Jenny Hill, and Iceland’s Ambassador to Canada, Hlynur Guðjónsson.