Children are playing in the large corridors of the Maison du Développement Durable, the coffee is hot and outside, Place des Arts is vaguely under construction behind the picture windows during this morning’s press conference. From August 5 to 14, the large tipi emblematic of the Présence Autochtone festival – which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year – will be erected on the square and will be at the heart of the activities, concerts, films and exhibitions of this great celebration of the world’s aboriginal peoples.
The First Peoples’ Festival
This is the 35th year of the festival, which presents and celebrates the work of aboriginal artists from Canada and beyond – from the four corners of Mother Earth. In the words of André Dudemaine, Director of Cultural Activities, this year’s edition could earn Montreal “the title of the most anti-MAGA city in the Americas”.
The already iconic festival poster features the superhero Captain Assi Nukum (or “Captain Turtle Island”) smashing the face of a “Maga-Lord barbarian”, and heralds “the inescapable triumph of the immemorial spirit that shaped the cultures and civilizations of the first peoples of America, and the coming demise of the Maga Lords barbarians.” At Peuple Autochtones, celebration rhymes with resistance.
The festival will take place in Montreal and Kahnawake, affirming the “aboriginality of place” for a “return in force of marginalized, invisibilized cultures” (André Dudemaine).
Festival program
Concerts and musical performances
We can’t wait to see Song to the Whales, a polyphonic work and concert-ritual born of collaboration between New Zealand, Australia and Nunavik. Bunna Lawrie, a great Aboriginal leader and whale dreamer artist with a dreamlike connection to whales, will be the guest of honor. August 6 and 7 at the Place des Festivals.
The festival will also welcome liberating punk-trash band 1876, Whapmagoostui rapper Kong and a concert of song and poetry by Atikamekw elder Jacques Newashish and Wendat artist Andrée-Lévesque Sioui.
In addition, this year’s festival pays a major tribute to Innu song with performances by the groups Maten, Shauit and Native Mafia Family.
Film competition
To continue the tribute to Innu song, the festival will present the world premiere of Florent Vollant: Innu, in the presence of his son (a member of the group Maten), the director and his entire community – who have come down from the north for the occasion. The event will take place at Théâtre Outremont.
The festival’s cinematic program, presented in Montreal and Kahnawake, is incredibly rich, and includes films you won’t necessarily have the chance to see on the big screen elsewhere – and we highly recommend opening your diary right away and making room to go and see them.
Don’t miss Bad Press (a documentary about the Muscogee Nation’s defense of freedom of the press), Midnight at the Lonely River (a genre film by Abraham Côté, who began his career at Wapikoni mobile), The Dim (a sci-fi thriller to be screened in Montreal’s coolest new cinema), Canuto (a proto-documentary built around the legend of the man transformed into a leopard) and Cosmographies (a film shot in the driest territory on earth – the Atacama Desert – where NASA researchers rub shoulders with native traditions).
In all, over 50 films from some twenty countries will be presented at the festival.
The closing film is especially eagerly awaited: Free Leonard Peltier. This documentary traces the life of Leonard Peltier – referred to by André Dudemaine as “the Nelson Mandela of North America’s indigenous peoples” – an aboriginal activist unjustly imprisoned since 1977, and the efforts of the community and Amnesty International to secure his release. The trailer alone gives you goosebumps.
Exhibitions
The exhibition Tshitauhitin nimushianassina Nitawihewan nipakekineskisin/Je te prête mes mocassins/Je lends you my moccasins: journeys of aboriginal women will be on view throughout August at the Maison du Développement Durable in Roberval.
At the Guild, an exhibition featuring more than 25 Inuit artists, Quand les oiseaux reviennent, runs from July 31 to September 13.
Special activities and presentations
The slow TV series Inuit Makers, a 126-hour portrait series of Inuit artists and artisans, will be projected in a loop at the NFB’s Balmoral space – a unique and meditative experience.
Around the big tipi on Place des Arts, there will also be drumming, traditional dancing, artisan kiosks, a skateboard ramp and, for the little ones, visits organized with holiday camps every morning. In addition, a series of concerts at the Jardins Gamelin will round off the festival.
Practical info
Where? in Montreal and Kahnawake (screening and concert locations to be confirmed in the program)
When? August 5 to 14, 2025
How to get there? for the complete festival program, click here!
Enjoy the Festival!