Indigenous voices to gather for Montreal’s International First Peoples’ Festival
Returning this August for its 35th anniversary, the festival stands united against fascism
Montreal’s International First Peoples’ Festival (FIPA) is back this August, with Indigenous artists from across Turtle Island, New Zealand and Australia to unite through film, music, dance, skateboarding and drumming.
Organized by Land InSights, the 35th edition of the festival is set to run from Aug. 5 to Aug. 14 at Place des Festivals. For over three decades, the festival has brought together global Indigenous artists, activists, filmmakers, musicians and Elders.
This year’s festival lineup will display a breadth of contemporary Indigenous arts, with offerings ranging from sci-fi thrillers to traditional drumming and dances, with voices arriving from Nunavik to Aotearoa.
The programming draws on a unity that is spiritual, political, symbolic and―as André Dudemaine, director of cultural activities for Land InSights, points out―literal.
“Turtle Island is a unity. This is the land of the Indigenous People,” Dudemaine said. “We are all connected―especially in the last 20 years, there has been a lot of connection.”
The director says this unity is how the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples finally got adopted in 2007.
“Now there is not only a feeling of solidarity, but a real connection that goes all over Mother Earth,” he said.
For Dudemaine, the festival stands in opposition to the rise in far-right politics in the U.S. He says that repression knows no borders, nor does Indigenous resistance.
“We are obviously anti-fascists,” Dudemaine said. “We’re proudly opposing the hard-right political wave that tried to submerge America. And we are part of that fight as First Nations.”
That spirit of global Indigenous unity will be front and centre at Song to the Whales, a large-scale international music project led by Bunna Lawrie, an Aboriginal guest of honour from Australia. He’ll be joined by artists from Nunavik and Aotearoa on Aug. 6 and Aug. 7 at Place des Festivals.
Inspired by traditional Māori, Indigenous and Inuit songs, the work blends ancestral voices with contemporary instrumentation.
“The whale is a symbol of all that is threatened now on Mother Earth,” Dudemaine said. “This is an animal that is connected with the ancestral cultures, so the ocean represents the connection between all those maritime cultures.”
Seayenna Fontaine Lee, an assistant day camp coordinator at Native Montreal and an Ojibwe member of Manitoba’s Sagkeeng First Nation, said it’s fitting that an international First Peoples festival has found its spot in Montreal.
The city, Lee noted, has long been a gathering place for many First Nations.
“It's Mohawk territory, but it's also close to Anishinaabe territory, so it's been a place where people from different nations can gather for a really long time, since before colonization,” Lee said.
She added that Montreal, as a multicultural city, is ideal to host an International First Peoples’ Festival.
Lee will be bringing the children from Native Montreal’s summer camp to the festival, where they’ve been invited by Land InSights as “special guests,” she said.
“It's just important that these kids are shown the importance of Indigenous culture,” she said. “The diversity is really cool, because all the kids are from different nations. So they’ll get to see themselves in some of the Elders, and the people who are there and the artists.”
Beyond the concerts, FIPA will feature the world premiere of Florent Vollant: Innu, directed by Isabelle Longnus, alongside screenings of Ka Whawhai Tonu in the Māori language, Kinra from Peru, and Bibiru and Canuto’s Transformation in Amazonian languages.
Other highlights include “Midnight at the Lonely River,” a genre-bending opening short by Abraham Côté, and The Dim, a sci-fi thriller set to screen at La Métropolitaine. For those seeking deeper immersion, Sanajiit (Inuit Makers), an observational docuseries, will debut at the NFB Space and the daphne art centre.
Throughout August, FIPA will expand beyond its official dates with concerts at Jardins Gamelin, exhibitions at the Grande Bibliothèque and La Guilde, and screenings in Kahnawake in partnership with the Eastern Connection Film Festival.
Kahnawa’kehró:non Elder Sedalia Fazio will open the festival with a drum ceremony at the Outremont Theatre.
“When you see Indigenous things happening, when you see festivals, when you see powwows, go and talk to the people. Go and talk to the people and find out, like, what is their history?” she said, speaking on National Indigenous Peoples Day this June. “Start learning the true history of our people.”
More information on the festival’s concerts, films and exhibitions can be found at www.presenceautochtone.ca.
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