SELFIES (Seeing English-Language Families in Engaging Situations)

ELAN is producing a series of short documentaries about identity and belonging in Quebec’s English-speaking communities. The videos feature participants in five Discussion Groups based on waves of immigration. In December, we had fascinating discussions with people whose families arrived in Quebec prior to 1945. The final two Discussion Groups feature people who arrived in Quebec since 1995. If that is you, and you want to share your story, contact Guy Rodgers at guyrodgers@quebec-elan.org The Discussion Groups will take place (under scrupulously hygienic conditions) in late January. If you have any questions concerning the conditions in which these Discussion Groups will take place, email betty@quebec-elan.org.

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