ELAN News September 2023

Letter from the Executive Director

Wow, September already – summer really flew by!

I hope you were able to take some time to recharge your batteries and get ready for the home stretch of 2023. Here at ELAN, our summer has been anything but quiet. We’ve been hard at work preparing for a busy fall season, and it all kicks off this month.

First up, ELAN is pleased to continue its longstanding participation in the annual meetings of the Arts, Culture and Heritage working group. These meetings are an important opportunity to bring together organizations working in arts, culture and heritage, as well as representatives from federal, provincial and regional institutions, to discuss key issues facing the English-speaking community in Quebec. ELAN’s active engagement in this process has yielded significant results for our community over the years, with lively discussions leading directly to the development of projects such as our Community Digital Arts Hub (CDAH) and State of the Arts: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (SOTA on EDI) projects, to name just a couple of recent examples. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what great ideas come out of this year’s gathering.

Speaking of SOTA on EDI, September marks a major milestone for us. After a year of intensive research and community consultation, we’re now ready to share our work with you at a two-day conference, which kicks off with an online session on September 27th , followed by a hybrid in-person/Zoom day on October 4th. The conference aims to bring together representatives from the English-language arts, culture and heritage community from across the province for a packed schedule of keynote presentations, panel discussions and group activities. We’ll also be presenting an EDI plan of action, developed based on our extensive consultations, for the community’s consideration. This will be an important opportunity to make your voice heard and we certainly hope you can join us.

Beyond these key dates, we have much more in store. Our Membership department is hard at work finalizing a packed schedule of webinars and workshops between now and next spring; and our Community Digital Arts Hub is ready to support you in your next digital project, be it a podcast, video or livestreamed event. As ever, stay tuned to our social media and newsletters for all the latest announcements!

Nick Maturo,
Interim Executive Director of ELAN

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.