ELK is a collaborative art-and-knowledge project originated by Pam Hall and engaging hundreds of collaborators in communities on the Northern Peninsula and Bonne Bay for Chapter 1; on Fogo Island and Change Islands, for Chapter 2; and partnering with Mi’kmaq artist Jerry Evans and community collaborators in Miawpukek / Conne River, Newfoundland for Chapter 3.

It explores art as a form of making and moving knowledge and reveals many ways of knowing that are local, living, and still fruitfully in use. Traditionally, we have often seen science as our only authoritative source of knowledge and this project works to expand, deepen and make visible many other forms of knowledge that have been under-valued and consequently under-used. Some would argue that such local knowledge, whether traditional or contemporary, has been excluded from important conversations about planning a sustainable future for rural communities, and at least part of the intention of this project, is to open and broaden the dialogue around who holds the knowledge and thus gets to be included in dialogues and decision making about the places we inhabit and how we live in them.