Letter from the Executive Director, June 2021

Summer is upon us and with that comes long-awaited picnics in the park, breezy evening walks, BBQs with family and friends, and all of the joys of this uplifting season.

As the province leaps forward into “déconfinement,” and our beloved arts and culture sectors slowly comes back to life, I encourage you all to discover, support and show up for your local and fellow artists, arts centre, venues, and community organizations. If you are an artist yourself, I encourage you to connect with your art service organizations and community groups. We are here to help and provide resources as you ease back in to quicker pace.

ELAN is part of an extremely supportive community network that keeps in touch, shares knowledge and works together. I want to highlight just some of our partners that I have had the pleasure of meeting with over the past few months – Fédération culturelle canadienne-française (FCCF), YES Montreal, Culture Montreal, Theatre Wakefield, Culture Outaouais, Quebec English-language Production Council (QEPC), La Fab Arts Co-op, National Film Board, Regional Development Network (RDN), Wakefield Writers Festival, Connexions Resource Centre, and Quebec Community Newspaper Association. The future is bright for the ELAN community with these inspiring and dedicated organizations and leaders by our side; I look forward to meeting with many more of you in the coming months.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that ELAN is a finalist in the category of “Our Essentials of Equity” for the Conseil des arts de Montréal Nos indispensables (Our Essential Artists) event. Paying tribute to the generosity and achievements of creators who stood out in the 2020 artistic year – in the category of Equity, they sought organizations who have shown a commitment and leadership in taking actions that promote social justice.

I hope you will all join me in expressing deep gratitude and heartfelt congratulations to all of the ELAN staff, Board, and Committee Members, past and present, for their contributions to ELAN’s Inclusion work that lead to this nomination. Join us at the ceremony taking place virtually on Tuesday, June 22, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. (EST).

Patrick Lloyd Brennan, 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.

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Land Acknowledgement