Elan News August 2023

Letter From Executive Director

August is a funny time of year. It’s still very much summer – just check your thermometer and remove all doubt – but there’s also the growing sense that something is just around the corner, and a feeling of excitement and anticipation in the arts community as we all prepare to dive back in to our work come September. In my time at ELAN, I’ve always found that our Annual General Meeting serves as both a great reminder of that impending shift and a perfect encapsulation of that mounting enthusiasm as we start to look forward to the months ahead.

With that in mind, I very much hope to see you at this year’s AGM on Monday, August 14th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at 460 Saint-Catherine Street W., whether in person or via Zoom. Each year, our AGM offers a wonderful opportunity to come together as a community and enjoy each other’s company as we look back on everything that ELAN has accomplished in the past year, while also casting a glance towards everything we have planned between now and next spring.

If that sounds like a good time to you, you can join us in person by RSVPing in advance. Your confirmation will include the suite number in the building where the event will be taking place. Please do note that our capacity is limited, so I encourage you to register in advance to ensure your spot. However, anyone interested in joining remotely, including all our members based in regions outside of Montreal, can also RSVP here to make sure you don’t miss out.

We hope to see you there!

Nick Maturo
Interim 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.