ELAN Responds to CAM Report on Systemic Racism in the Arts

ELAN supports the initiative Conseil des arts de Montreal (CAM) has taken on studying and recognizing the systemic racism that is ingrained in institutional, artistic funding structures.

We see CAM’s report as the result of years of advocacy work done by grassroots organizations in Montreal, and building on the research put forward by organizations like Diversité artistique Montréal (DAM), who published a report on systemic racism in the arts in 2018. This is a positive step that sets an example and provides a guideline for accountability in creating an equitable and inclusive society, within our own artistic communities and in our province.

View full statement below:

[gview file=”https://www.quebec-elan.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/ELAN-CAM-final2019e.pdf”]

View document in ELAN Archives.

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.

ELAN supports the initiative Conseil des arts de Montreal (CAM) has taken on studying and recognizing the systemic racism that is ingrained in institutional, artistic funding structures.

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Land Acknowledgement