Letter from the Erstwhile Executive Director, February 2022

When I said goodbye last March, after 17 years of nurturing ELAN from a compelling idea to the dynamic organization it is today,

it was an emotional departure, as final farewells always are. I certainly never expected to return for an interim period as Executive Director, but it has been a pleasure to reconnect with old friends and welcome new members to the team.

I have compared artists to health workers and educators whose work is absolutely essential for the well-being of the world, and yet is often undervalued and underappreciated. There is no applause at the end of the day. This COVID pandemic has demonstrated more clearly than ever the value of support services.

As an arts service organization ELAN has been able to assist the community in many tangible, useful ways. Deborah, Nick and Swati, ELAN’s stalwarts, have been joined by Vanessa, Lauren, Francisco, Iso, and Julio to form a new team that will, in collaboration with ELAN’s dedicated board, support ELAN’s members as we reimagine the post-COVID arts sector and rebuild it.

I am going to take up where I left off in my post-ELAN adventure. The first priority is to finish directing the feature-length documentary What We Choose To Remember, which will premier at the Hudson Film festival in the spring. The third and (perhaps?) final element of the Waves of Change project about identity and belonging in Quebec’s English-speaking community is a one-hour documentary I am writing and directing for CBC. I will also continue to be an ELAN member and to applaud the valuable work that ELAN does.

Guy Rex Rodgers
Erstwhile 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.