Everything Icelandic
Everything Icelandic is an INLNA initiative to better serve members and friends of the league through online means. It will present monthly presentations or interviews on a variety of topics – travel and tourism, literature and music, history and geography, food and art, cinema and sagas, business and public affairs. We’ll explore all things Icelandic, whether here in North America, over in Iceland, or anywhere else in the world.
Upcoming Events
Not Alone on the Prairie
How Indigenous Wisdom Helped Icelanders Endure and Thrive
Wednesday, October 1st, 2025
7 pm Central/8 pm Eastern/6 pm Mountain/5 pm Pacific
This year, 2025, marks the 150th anniversary of the landing of Icelandic immigrants at Willow Island near Gimli, Manitoba, that left over 60 families on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. The settlers arrived in land that had been ‘given to them’ by the Dominion of Canada to start a new colony and found Nýja Ísland. However, the land already had people living on it. This proved to be fortuitous for the newcomers. The weary Icelanders arrived on October 21st which was very late in the year to be successful in enduring the winter. We know that the local indigenous groups, particularly the Anishinaabe, Cree, and Métis, were key to their survival. In the 150 celebrations in Gimli and Riverton, Manitoba this year, the memory of John Ramsay, who was of the Saulteaux peoples, was honoured. Ramsay, despite the arrival of settlers on land he called home, chose to offer incredible generosity and selfless compassion at a great personal cost. In that first winter, he is credited for saving as many as 75 of the settlers from starving and freezing to death. Ramsay’s beloved wife and four children died of smallpox the following year.
There were many hardships, as we know, but the Icelanders more than survived, they thrived. In those early years, learning from indigenous people how to fish through ice was essential for food, but later it became the basis of an international commercial fishing industry on Lake Manitoba. This is just one story of the success of Icelanders in this country. This year as we celebrate the 150 years of Icelandic heritage in Canada, the INLNA invites us to take a pause on Truth and Reconciliation Day to recognize how the people who were here already helped our ancestors. In a sense we stand on their shoulders – most with names unknown but acts of kindness and generosity to be remembered. Ramsay’s story also reminds us of the cost of colonial encounter—not only in land, but in lives and culture. His generosity did not shield his family from the devastating impact of disease or displacement, yet his actions endure as a model of courage and grace in the face of great challenge and shine like a beacon into the future.
The INLNA is pleased to be joined online a conversation led by distinguished guests Glenn Sigurdson C.M,K.C and Professor Niigaan Sinclair.
In this webinar:
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Glenn Sigurdson C.M,K.C , a fifth generation descendent of one of the original Icelandic fishing families on Lake Winnipeg, will tell us stories of how indigenous wisdom was integrated into the fishing industry through the deep and lasting relationships between the Icelanders and local indigenous peoples. The stories he shares are personal, passed down from family members. Glenn also professionally works in reconciliation around environmental and resource land use involving indigenous treaties and rights. Glenn Sigurdson received the 2025 INLNA Joan Inga Eyolfson Cadham Award and the Order of Canada in 2022.
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Niigaan Sinclair, professor at the University of Manitoba and award-winning writer for The Winnipeg Free Press, will speak to us on Truth and Reconciliation today. Professor Sinclair is recognized as one of Canada’s most influential thinkers on the issues impacting Indigenous culture, communities and reconciliation in Canada. Professor Sinclair will talk to us about how to carry forward today along our path of Truth and Reconciliation. The INLNA and member chapters are including the Indigenous, first peoples, in our stories and celebrations of our Icelandic heritage.
This is an opportunity reflect and renew our commitment to telling the full story of New Iceland and to pause and commit anew to taking meaningful action going forward.
In Conversation with Eliza REID
Joint Presentation of The Icelandic National League of North America (INLNA) and the Icelandic National League of the United States (INLUS)
Wednesday, October 8th, 2025 @ 11 am Central Time Online Webinar
Eliza Reid’s first mystery novel – DEATH ON AN ISLAND – weaves Agatha Christie, Louise Penny and Nordic Noir together to create a suspenseful surprise which will capture the intrigue of avid mystery readers and those new to the genre. It’s a novel you won’t be able to put down!
What compelled Eliza to turn to writing mystery novels? How did she conjure up such a compelling host of characters?
Join us online for an intimate up-close opportunity to chat with our former First Lady of Iceland about this new chapter in her amazing life.
Past events
Ryan Eyford
Tuesday, January 21, 2025 8 pm EST (7 CT; 6 MT, 5 PT)
Icelanders love stories, especially ones about journeys. The journey of Icelanders in 1875, to escape the volcanic eruptions and poverty in order to create a new home in North America is a saga to rival all of them. In 2025, we celebrate 150 years since the founding of Nýja Ísland. It is a time to honour the many groups who came in small ships to different harbours and made the long trek across forested wild lands to found settlements from coast to coast. The large group that came to Gimli to found New Iceland in the north-west territories, became a cultural heart for all these disparate communities. They stayed connected through newspapers, letters, visits and resettlements. It was remarkable when you consider 1875 and what travel and communication was like then.
This year the INLNA convention will be held in Gimli, Manitoba. The theme is “Þó Líði Ár og Öld – Though Years and Centuries Pass”. Though the years have passed, we still gather to celebrate our shared and rich cultural heritage.
In this webinar, Professor Eyford will share with us the story and journeys of those original settlers, giving us the beginnings of the saga of Western Icelanders.
Discover Your Icelandic immigration story
with Icelandic Roots
Webinar REplay:
Join in a special webinar which will be jointly hosted by INLUS and INLNA. Dave Jonasson from Icelandic Roots will show us some amazing new features in the Icelandic Roots genealogy database which can help us trace and understand our ancestors and how they emigrated from Iceland to North America.
Icelandic Roots is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Fargo North Dakota and is a member of both INLUS and INLNA. Visit our Icelandic Organizations and Partner Organizations pages for more information.
This event was held on Thursday, October 26th. The conversation will be facilitated by Natalie Guttormsson from INLNA.
Wind, Gravel, & Ice
with Christina Chowaniec
Webinar REplay:
Everything Icelandic presents Christina Chowaniec on Wind, Gravel and Ice, an account of Canadian soldiers in Iceland during World War II.
The result of a 10-year research project, the story focuses on the experiences of Christina’s grandfather, who was stationed at RAF Kaldadarnes from July 1940 to April 1941. Christina herself lived at Laugarvatn while she wrote the book, connecting with Icelandic experts and storytellers. A coming of age story set against the backdrop of Iceland, Wind, Gravel and Ice is told in the first person by Private Claude Hill, a new soldier in a strange land, understanding what it means to wait for war – and what happens when it finds you.
A Little Look at Christmas in Iceland
with Alda Sigmundsdóttir
Webinar REplay:
The Icelandic National League of North America webinar series Everything Icelandic is pleased to have Alda Sigmundsdóttir speak to us directly from Iceland on Wednesday, December 14, 2022.
Alda Sigmundsdóttir is the writer and publisher of the delightfully entertaining "Little Book" series, including The Little Book of the Icelanders at Christmas.
Alda Sigmundsdóttir will be in conversation with INLNA past president Stefan Jonasson, taking us on a journey through Iceland's magical Yuletide festivities, from Advent to New Year's Eve, sharing the history and cultural background to many of the traditions still celebrated today. And, of course, she has favourite traditional recipes, stories of the jólasveinar and much more to share.
Alda Sigmundsdóttir's Little book series is equally informative and entertaining. Many of us have enjoyed The Little Book of Hidden People or smiled in recognition when reading The Little Book of Tourists in Iceland. Alda has also brought her insight and compassion to non-fiction works like Unraveled: Living Inside the Meltdown and Daughter, A Memoir. You can check out Alda's books and publishing company at www.aldasigmunds.com
Ambassador Pétur Ásgeirsson
February 20, 2021
Ambassador Pétur Ásgeirsson was the first guest when the Icelandic National League of North America launched its new webinar series, All Things Icelandic, on Saturday, February 20, 2021.
The ambassador was in conversation with INLNA president Stefan Jonasson. They discussed the relationship between Canada and Iceland, what the two countries have in common and how they differ, how the Nordic embassies in Ottawa collaborate, and even explored the ambassador’s personal background and interests.
Saturday, February 20, 2021 – 1:00 p.m. Eastern / 12:00 p.m. Central / 11:00 a.m. Mountain / 10:00 a.m. Pacific
Ambassador Pétur Ásgeirsson has been Iceland’s representative to Canada since November 1, 2017, when he and his wife, Jóhanna Gunnarsdóttir, a lawyer by profession, arrived in Ottawa. The ambassador joined the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1999 and was previously Consul General in Nuuk, Greenland, which is Iceland’s nearest neighbour.