Equity & Diversity Committee Report – June 2017

Halifax rolling 2017 mashup

Com­mit­tee mem­bers: Jen­nifer War­ing (chair), Jen­nifer But­ler, Juli­et Palmer, Norm Adams, Lukas Pearse, Isak Gold­schnei­der and Chris Reiche.

An out­growth of FORUM 2016, the new­ly formed Equi­ty and Diver­si­ty Com­mit­tee hit the road run­ning, in its first year plan­ning and pro­vid­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for com­mu­ni­ty intro­spec­tion around diver­si­ty and equi­ty. Why? Because it’s 2017 and there are still prob­lems, still mar­gin­al­ized voic­es that have not been heard.

The major project dur­ing this off-forum year was the Rolling Nation­al Con­ver­sa­tion on diver­si­ty. With fund­ing from CNMN’s gen­er­al oper­at­ing bud­get, FACTOR, and local pre­sent­ing part­ners, the con­ver­sa­tions began in Hal­i­fax (Jan. 9), moved on to Vic­to­ria (March 26), and wound up in Mon­tre­al (May 1). It was an extreme­ly valu­able project, allow­ing for intense dis­cus­sion on a huge range of diver­si­ty con­cerns. We heard the voic­es of under-rep­re­sent­ed artists and prac­ti­tion­ers, and his­tor­i­cal­ly privileged/established prac­ti­tion­ers began under­stand­ing the ways that they need to make room.

A com­pre­hen­sive report incor­po­rat­ing ideas from all three ses­sions will be made avail­able to our mem­ber­ship. In the mean­time, we encour­age you to take a look at the indi­vid­ual post-ses­sion mate­ri­als on our web site: the Mon­tre­al report has just been pub­lished, and the Hal­i­fax report remains avail­able as well. A tran­scrip­tion of the Vic­to­ria ses­sion is com­ing out short­ly – stay tuned! Be sure to check them out, they are great for fer­til­iz­ing your thinking.

Anoth­er event of note: on behalf of CNMN and its Equi­ty & Diver­si­ty Com­mit­tee, Jen­nifer War­ing attend­ed a meet­ing called by Dylan Robin­son and mem­bers of the Nisga’a and Metis com­mu­ni­ty to dis­cuss aspects of the opera Louis Riel. A for­mal report is in prepa­ra­tion by lead­ers of the meet­ing. Watch for the release of this impor­tant doc­u­ment in the near future.

If any CNMN mem­bers out there would like to become involved in the activ­i­ties of this com­mit­tee, please con­tact me either at the address below or through CNMN. 

Jen­nifer Waring:
jwaring@interlog.com

 

Direct link: Equi­ty & Diver­si­ty Com­mit­tee Report – June 2017
Return to full Bul­letin – June 2017