UWinnipeg historian Dr. Ryan Eyford is the recipient of the 2025 International Vigdís Prize. This prize is named in honor of Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, a renowned advocate for linguistic diversity, and the strengthening of small language communities.
Dr. Eyford, author of the book, White Settler Reserve: New Iceland and the Colonization of the Canadian West, earned the prize for his scholarly work and contribution to research on colonization in Western Canada that brings together immigrant and Indigenous histories.
The research for my book was inspired by a desire to place the history of the Icelandic Reserve into its proper context.
Dr. Ryan Eyford
Dr. Eyford was in Reykjavík, Iceland earlier this month to receive his award and give a lecture, Commemorating Colonization: New Iceland Anniversaries, at the University of Iceland. The lecture discussed his book and included reflections on the 150th anniversary of Icelandic settlement in Western Canada.
“The research for my book was inspired by a desire to place the history of the Icelandic Reserve into its proper context,” wrote Dr. Eyford. “The reserve, also known as ‘New Iceland’, was a colony for Icelandic settlers established on the southwest shores of Lake Winnipeg by the Canadian government in 1875.”
Dr. Eyford’s research involved examining the Canadian government’s role supporting the colony, and the relations of the Icelanders with the Indigenous peoples who lived in the region, especially those who were displaced by the Icelanders’ arrival.
In his lecture at the University of Iceland, Dr. Eyford stressed how Manitoba of the 1870s was a linguistically diverse place, and that Indigenous languages were spoken by a large proportion of the province’s inhabitants.
“This is an important point about Manitoba’s history that should be emphasized,” shared Dr. Eyford. “The Icelanders who first arrived here in 1875 were newcomers to a place that was both ancient homeland of Indigenous Peoples, and home to a multicultural society shaped by the fur trade over the previous two centuries.”
In addition to White Settler Reserve, Eyford has published several articles on the history of the Icelanders in North America. Eyford serves as president of the board of New Iceland Heritage Museum in Gimli.
The International Vigdís Prize is awarded annually by the Icelandic government, the University of Iceland, and the Vigdís International Centre for Multilingualism and Intercultural Understanding, in honor of Her Excellency Ms. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, former President of Iceland (1980–1996) and current UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Languages.
Previous awardees of the Vigdís Prize are Asifa Majid, British psychologist and linguist; Anne Carson (2023), Canadian poet and classicist; Juergen Boos (2022), the President and CEO of the Frankfurt Book Fair; Katti Frederiksen (2021), a Greenlandic linguist, writer and politician; and Jonhard Mikkelsen (2020), a Faroese linguist, teacher and publisher.
