J’ai eu l’honneur d’assumer la présidence de la CASCA dans une année mouvementée … and full of transitions, as has been presciently signalled par le thème de notre colloque conjoint avec la AAA to be held soon – du 15 au 19 novembre, à Toronto/Tkaronto. It will be a particular pleasure to meet you where I live and work – land and waters governed by le wampum du plat à une cuillère des Anishinaabek et des Haudenosaunee.
I learn from the covenant of the Dish with One Spoon la nécessité absolue de ne prendre que les ressources dont on a besoin; the importance of sharing with others, whether they are part of our group or not; and to do everything we can to ensure that the land, the water and the air will continue to sustain us – et vice versa. But the theme of this issue of Culture, “Environment in Transition/Environnement en transition”, nous rappelle que ce n’est pas evident. Ces derniers mois nous avons vécu flood, fire, storm. The spirit of the covenant has escaped us. Il est urgent d’être attentifs et attentives à nos relations and to our practices.
It is our hope that CASCA can provide spaces for sharing experiences, knowledge, experiments failed and successful; pour débattre, s’entendre, ne pas s’entendre but to learn from each other anyway. C’est justement, à mon avis, par l’interaction et la conversation qu’on puisse réaliser the changes and the continuities that will sustain us and our worlds. I see part of CASCA’s job as facilitating those conversations, those interactions and those learnings.
En voici quelques exemples : grâce aux efforts de Alex Oehler, Daniel Tubb, Rine Vieth, Anastasiia Mykolenko and Sandrine Lambert, and based on a design by Stephanie Braconnier, we have a new website que nous voulons mobiliser comme espace de vie collective. Our new Communications Officer, Sandrine Lambert, is working on l’animation des médias sociaux, and, with Past President Emma Varley, on showcasing le travail de nos membres et de nos collègues. Comme toujours, la liste des membres will help the Executive keep in touch with members. Recently, we have also been invited to enter into conversation with new partners; le projet Anthropen (www.anthropen.ca), l’Association des anthropologues du Québec (https://aanthq.qc.ca) and the Global Anthropology Project (https://globalanthropology.org). Chacune de ces invitations nous ouvre des liens importants, both globally and within Canada, and they complement our existing ties to the World Council of Anthropological Associations. They open doors to discussions about what it means to practice anthropology dans une gamme importante de contextes et de conditions.
N’oublions pas notre colloque en mai 2024; we will be meeting from May 15-18 on the campus of the University of British Columbia-Okanagan à Kelowna. Les organisatrices, Christine Schreyer and Sue Frohlick, are preparing an innovative event, which will make us think, nous aidera à discuter, and will help us dream.
Obviously, the annual conference will also be a moment to reflect on what it means to hold an annual conference, en cette période post-COVID, of environmental change, of shifting conditions of work. Le défi est de taille: comment maintenir nos relations étroites et notre solidarité tout en s’ouvrant aux anthropologues et aux anthropologies que l’on entend moins souvent, from across not only the very large territory of what we call Canada but also with the friends and colleagues elsewhere who share our concerns, our questions, and our goals?
One part of the environmental transition nous concerne en tant que société au-delà des espaces de conversation que nous tentons de maintenir et de créer : our institutional practices as a society are also part of the picture. Je me réjouis de discuter et de travailler ensemble as we find our way through this most consequential of transitions.
Note: ceux et celles qui me connaissent sauront que ma toute première publication (1979) a été intitulée « Bonjour, hello? Négociations de choix de langue à Montréal ». My title and the linguistic form of the text are therefore a clin d’œil à une pratique longuement observée and which I have practiced now for decades, well a lifetime really, and which I bring into my professional practice comme manière de défaire les barrières.
