Equity & Diversity Committee Report — October 2017

The new­ly-formed Equi­ty and Diver­si­ty Com­mit­tee took up the major project dur­ing this off-forum year: the Rolling Nation­al Con­ver­sa­tion on diver­si­ty. Fund­ed by CNMN’s gen­er­al oper­at­ing bud­get, a spe­cial grant from FACTOR, and local pre­sent­ing part­ners, the Con­ver­sa­tions began in Hal­i­fax (Jan­u­ary. 9), moved on to Vic­to­ria (March 26), and wound up in Mon­tre­al (May 1). There was also a live stream­ing com­po­nent so that the larg­er com­mu­ni­ty could be part of the local events. This diver­si­ty road trip was inspired by con­ver­sa­tions – both pro­grammed and spon­ta­neous – that took place at FORUM 2016 in Ottawa, with addi­tion­al prac­ti­cal impe­tus pro­vid­ed by the Cana­da Council’s new poli­cies. One of the prin­ci­ples in part­ner­ing with local pre­sen­ters was to allow dis­cus­sion to be shaped by local pre­oc­cu­pa­tions and real­i­ties.  Each ses­sion dis­played the per­son­al­i­ty of the host community.

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 or estab­lished prac­ti­tion­ers began to under­stand that, while inclu­sion is a fine con­cept and some­times appro­pri­ate, at times it is nec­es­sary just to step aside and make room. The sub­stan­tial post-ses­sion mate­ri­als pub­lished on our web­site are a valu­able and essen­tial part of the project that allow mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty to ben­e­fit from the ses­sions, help­ing them to fur­ther their own work.

For their help in real­iz­ing this project we thank: Eve­lyn Cream (FACTOR), Lukas Pearse and Gay Osler (Upstream Music Asso­ci­a­tion, Hal­i­fax), Norm Adams (Sud­den­lyLIS­TEN, Hal­i­fax), Christo­pher Reiche Bouch­er (Open Space, Vic­to­ria), Isak Gold­schnei­der and Nick Hor­vat (Inno­va­tions en con­cert, Mon­tre­al), all the pan­elists, mod­er­a­tors, note-tak­ers and cir­cle exer­cise lead­ers, and all the par­tic­i­pants who attend­ed, in per­son or online.

Also, 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.

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

Sub­mit­ted by Jen­nifer War­ing, Octo­ber 2017

Read past bulletin entries from this committee

Equi­ty & Diver­si­ty Com­mit­tee Report – June 2017

Return to full Bul­letin – March 2018