36th International First Peoples Festival
As the site where the Great Peace of Montreal was signed, this Quebec metropolis joyfully celebrates its Indigenous roots, its diversity, and its exemplary spirit of living together. Montreal, where art becomes a weapon of peace, as the city, drawing from the oldest sources of its identity, discovers its festive spirit.
The great Joséphine Bacon will headline the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2026 International First Peoples Festival. First, through an act of love for the land, the film Nitassinan, which she co-directed with Kim Obomsawin and which will have its world premiere on August 4th and through her participation in the grand concert Here Stood the Tree of Peace, which will bring the most deeply rooted and universal of Montreal’s festivals to a spectacular close on August 14th.
Standing proudly as the centrepiece is the large tipi on Place des Festivals, while the drums call for celebration and discovery. Films, music, theatre, dance, visual arts, literature, performances, installations, and participatory creations come together to form a journey where the boundaries between art forms blur, giving way to an immersive and deeply human experience.
A substantial section is dedicated to Indigenous cinema, which is not merely an art form confined to dark theatres but a gateway to vast, open skies, featuring works never before seen here from every corner of Mother Earth. In this fruitful season, this cinema generously offers treasures to true cinephiles—those who dare to dive into a teeming universe to discover the rare gems it holds for the adventurous.
A powerful voice from the South Pacific, carried by oceanic waves—the poet Flora Aurima Devatine, a leading figure in Tahitian literature and a driving force behind the revival of the ancestral Polynesian language—will present the documentary dedicated to her.
Bringing together atolls and tundra, poetry will flood the festival with its fragrance, emanating from lands revered by those who have found solace and sustenance there for millennia.
Through the quality of its programming, the festival thus establishes itself as a space for reflection, transmission, and celebration of cultural diversity. By building bridges among peoples, languages, and imaginations, the FIPA offers a unique space for intercultural dialogue where knowledge, stories, and artistic expressions converge in a spirit of openness and respect.
Enukunnu, the Innu Spider—the allegorical figure of FIPA 2026—twirls above the city. Montreal has peace in its heart, dance in its steps, and open arms for boldly creative imaginations.
The 36th FIPA will take place from August 4 to 14, 2026. The full program is available on the website: www.presenceautochtone.ca