Director's Message: July 2017

Summer is festival season in Quebec. There is not a better place on the planet for a summer vacation or alfresco afternoons on terraces.

This summer, our cultural landscape will be enlivened by an extraordinary number of celebrations for Canada 150 and Montreal 375. ELAN will contribute to the festivities with Arts Alive! Québec 2017. Thanks to support from the Canada 150 Fund, we’ve increased the number of participating artists in 2017, including the number of ELAN members (if you responded to the call, see this link).

The fun kicked off in Quebec City (Morrin Centre) and Knowlton on July 1. Knowlton has a second day programmed on July 8, then next up is Hudson July 21-23, followed by Huntingdon August 18, Wakefield September 8-10, and the West Island September 23-24. I encourage you all to check out the Arts Alive! Québec 2017 website and plan a day trip to one of these splendid weekends.

I look forward to running into some of you at Arts Alive! Québec events this summer, and to seeing many ELAN members present and perform your work.

Guy Rodgers

Executive Director

Land Acknowledgement

ELAN is an official minority language organization within a country that recognizes two languages as official. ELAN is located in Tiohtià:ke, the original name for Montreal in Kanien’kéha, the language of the Mohawk—also known as Mooniyang, which is the Anishinaabeg name given to the city by the Algonquin. While we are based in this city, our projects have also taken place in many regions across Quebec.

We acknowledge the colonial origin of English and French in Canada, and recognize that both languages benefit from official status throughout the land. The province that we know as Quebec is an amalgamation of the traditional territories of the Innu and Inuit nations, Algonquian nations, as well as the Mohawk nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Kanien’kéha and Anishinaabemowin are but two of the original languages of this province; Atikamekw, Cree, Inuktitut, and Innu-aimun are also among the many Indigenous languages spoken across Quebec as majority languages, all well before French and English.

ELAN acknowledges the important work being done by First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples to revive the traditional languages of these territories, and their advocacy for the official status of Indigenous languages.