Director's Message - July 2020

ELAN’s Executive Director: Guy Rodgers with past Board President: Bettina Forget, past Board Treasurer: Kristelle Holliday, and past Program Manager: Amy Macdonald at ELAN’s 2019 AGM and 15th anniversary celebration.

In a normal year, I’d be wishing you a splendid summer, with a change of pace and time away from the workplace. This year, the rapid changes of pace and conditions have been like whiplash, and most of us have been away from our regular working environment for months. It has been an exceedingly difficult period for everyone, for some more than others. The future is only predictable to the extent that we know there are more unexpected twists and turns ahead.

There are some encouraging signs. Venues have started opening up to groups up to 50 people. Museums are making tentative steps, under carefully controlled conditions. ELAN will be open all summer (albeit remotely) to provide support and to share information as it comes available. Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) and Le Conseil des arts de Montréal (CAM) have both announced new programs to help artists connect with audiences in non-conventional locations: parks, parking lots, back alleys, verandahs, and any other creative locations you can imagine. The funding is available now and will be allocated first-come-first-served. If you have ideas for a project, or questions, contact Nick at research@quebec-elan.org for more information.

ELAN has received funding from the Secretariat for Relations with English-speaking Quebecers for a project we have named SELFIES (Seeing English-Language Families in Engaging Stories). This project kicks off with a call for suggestions of works of art that have inspired you, encouraged you, enlightened you, or made you feel that someone else shared a piece of your reality. All of us working in the arts have been inspired by others (past and present). We want to hear your favourites. Click here to see submission details.

Wishing you all a safe and healthy summer.

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.

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Land Acknowledgement