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LAURIE K. BERTRAM Public Spectacles, Private Narratives: Canadian Heritage Campaigns, Maternal Trauma and the Rise of the Koffor

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LAURIE K. BERTRAM Public Spectacles, Private Narratives: Canadian Heritage Campaigns, Maternal Trauma and the Rise of the Koffor LAURIE K. BERTRAM Public Spectacles, Private Narratives: Canadian Heritage Campaigns, Maternal Trauma and the Rise of the Koffort (trunk) in Icelandic-Canadian Popular Memory Résumé Abstract L’engouement tardif pour ce qui était autrefois un The late rise of the previously undervalued migrant objet dévalorisé, la malle de bois des migrants, trunk, or “koffort” within Icelandic-Canadian ou « koffort », au sein de la culture populaire popular culture is easily linked to the proliferation des Islandais du Canada peut se lier aisément of migration-focused visual heritage campaigns in à la prolifération des campagnes en faveur du Canada from 1967 onwards. This corresponding patrimoine visuel centré sur la migration au Canada re-emergence in local art and museums, as well as depuis 1967. Le fait que cet objet ait réapparu, de in family homes, suggests that Icelandic-Canadians manière correspondante, dans les musées et les arts have simply adopted the static, celebratory image locaux, ainsi que dans les familles, laisse penser of migration history set forth by the state. However, que les Islandais du Canada n’ont fait qu’adopter by using interviews and photographs detailing the l’image commémorative statique de l’histoire telle mnemonic uses of these objects in private, this qu’elle a été instaurée par l’État. Cependant, en se article contends that the trunk is a hybrid object that basant sur des entrevues et des photographies qui offers families archives and points of contact for détaillent les usages mnémoniques de ces objets histories of trauma that also draw from traditional en privé, cet article permet au contraire d’avancer Icelandic notions of fatalism and matrilineal que la malle est un objet hybride qui présente des systems of identification. Despite its redemptive archives familiales et des points de contact pour public image, the trunk is often the vehicle through des histoires traumatiques qui s’inspirent également which are revealed female-centred narratives of des notions islandaises traditionnelles de fatalité et migrant trauma—spousal abuse, widowhood and de systèmes d’identification matrilinéaires. Malgré infant mortality. Rather than delivering a cohesive son image publique rédemptrice, la malle est vision of settler nationalism to Canadians, the souvent le véhicule par lequel se révèlent les récits, migrant trunk has emerged as a powerful, but centrés sur les femmes, des traumatismes vécus par unsettling archive in popular practice. les migrants – abus commis par le conjoint, veuvage et mortalité infantile. Plutôt que de donner aux Canadiens une image de cohésion nationale des colons, la malle des migrants est apparue comme un élément d’archive puissant mais dérangeant dans la pratique populaire. Material Culture Review 71 (Spring 2010) / Revue de la culture matérielle 71 (printemps 2010) 39 As common fixtures in garage sales, attics, and mu- arrival, the assimilative pressure of Anglo-Canadian seum galleries alike, 19th- and early-20th-century society began to shape Icelandic cultural expression immigrant trunks are some of the most familiar and life. Although language was the cornerstone of relics of Canadian immigration history. This article 19th-century Icelandic identity, migrant community explores the complex history of these relatively leaders and members eagerly adopted English for common objects in relation to private and public economic reasons. Domestic servants who could depictions of tragedy in one immigrant community. speak English earned more than two dollars per With its strong oral tradition mythologizing geneal- month more than those who could not and Icelandic ogy as it relates to migration and settlement, the businessmen such as Fredrick Fredrickson (Friðjón Icelandic-Canadian community offers a compelling Friðriksson) found that English names, habits case for exploring popular ethnic commemoration in and language promoted good relations with their Canada. During the last quarter of the 19th century, Anglo-Canadian counterparts (AM: MG 8 A 6-7, dire climatic and economic conditions, including 1874-85, Letter 23, 2). The demise of the colony’s a large volcanic eruption, motivated one-fourth to semi-autonomous municipal government, also one-third of the island nation’s population to leave sometimes erroneously referred to as the “Republic for North America. Though Icelanders eventually of New Iceland” coincided with the decline of the moved across the continent, many initially settled Icelandic language in the community by 1897. in the 1554 km2 (600 square miles) Icelandic In addition to language, Anglo social pressure land reserve the Canadian government created in and climate conditions in Canada also dramati- Manitoba during 1875. “New Iceland,” as it was cally shaped migrant material culture. In a letter known, was located in Manitoba’s Interlake district, from 1874, Friðrika Baldvinsdóttir advised family between the shores of Lake Winnipeg and parts of members considering migration to pack clothing Lake Manitoba. Here, migrants began to establish that would blend in with the preference for women’s farms, fisheries and a semi-autonomous district black clothing in late-Victorian Canada, noting government that would provide them with a degree that “it is good to bring dark coloured cloth and of self-governance, including the ability to maintain dresses which are very much customary here” their own language and the administration of their (Guðmundsson 2006: 60). While simple dark own public school system. The settlement struggled dresses could pass as Anglo-Victorian, Icelandic through several early catastrophes, including a women quickly learned that this did not extend to smallpox epidemic, starvation, poverty and harsh the traditional black, tasselled skullcap known as winters. These adversities prompted many migrants the skotthúfa. An essential part of everyday dress to depart and join or form other Icelandic settlements in Iceland, women were photographed wearing the in North Dakota, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British skotthúfa on board ships heading to North America, Columbia. Yet Manitoba remains home to more than but seldom were seen wearing it following their 30,000 Icelandic-Canadians, or more than one-third arrival in Canada. Thorstina (Jackson) Walters of Canada’s self-identifying Icelandic population recalls that her mother’s decision to stop wearing (Statistics Canada 2006). the skotthúfa was a direct result of an encounter To both the provincial and federal govern- with North American women who made their ments, Icelanders appeared a desirable ethnic group disdain obvious: who would help occupy and establish Euro-settler Her Icelandic costume of black wool, with its tight dominance in newly redistributed territories, includ- fitting, skilfully embroidered bodice, full skirt and ing those still populated by several Aboriginal com- multi-coloured silk apron was greatly admired, but munities. In this regard, Icelandic-Canadian settlers the small tasselled cap under which she turned up were entangled in the Anglo-Canadian campaign to her heavy braids of brown hair did not find favour. remove and relocate Aboriginal Manitobans, but In fact she was advised to keep the costume but the community’s larger relationship to the Anglo- send the cap back to Iceland. (Walters 1953:11) Canadian state is more complex. The provincial Similarly, T. Auróra Stinson reported to histo- government and proponents of migration touted rian Nelson Gerrard that homemade skinnskór, or Icelanders as “racially compatible” cousins to Icelandic shoes, attracted unwanted attention from Anglo-Saxons and offered them preferential status Anglo children and image-conscious Icelanders through subsidies and land grants. Notwithstanding around the turn of the 20th century. “The vil- initial assurances of autonomy and provisions for lage children were inclined to look down upon cultural retention, almost immediately following (skinnskór) with the greatest of scorn,” she recalled, 40 Material Culture Review 71 (Spring 2010) / Revue de la culture matérielle 71 (printemps 2010) adding: “While I wasn’t so keen about them myself, tion within an ethnic community that otherwise has I just pretended that I was, and declared that the been Anglicized, relatively privileged and fully ‘stuck-ups’ were just jealous because they had to integrated since the mid 20th century. Importantly, stomp around in those heavy store-bought ‘clomp- this change must be understood within the context ers’” (Gerrard 1985: 164). of migration-centric heritage movements beginning The decision of migrants to Anglicize their in 1967 and resulting from the Canadian govern- public image, through the adoption of English ment’s policy and program initiatives in support names, language and clothing meant that Icelandic of multiculturalism. Following the development material culture relating to private practices in of a series of federally and provincially funded domestic spaces endured longer than the mate- heritage campaigns designed to promote both the rial culture relating to more openly visible, public Canadian Centennial as well as the official adoption interactions with non-Icelanders. Outward markers of multiculturalism,3 families, community groups of difference, including language, were gone or and museums retrieved long-neglected kofforts. visibly fading fifty years following migration; Using comparisons to the ethnic spectacles, or however, private practices and cultural forms, pageants, of the 1920s, this article argues that the such as food, knitting
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