Montreal’s First Peoples’ Festival Features Multi-Disciplinary Arts, Culture And Fun

July 17, 2009

Author: Gale Courey Toensing

Source: Indian Country Today

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/home/content/50469162.html

Indigenous films and videos; paintings, sculptures, baskets and pottery; demonstrations of stone cutting, totem making and other traditional artisan skills; workshops, lectures, forums and storytelling; networking with indigenous peoples from the other side of the nearby river to as far away as Polynesia; hundreds of musicians, singers and dancers making music so joyful and compelling that the audience got on its feet and danced, were all part of a summer solstice ceremony.

These were some of the events that took place June 11 – 21 during Montreal’s First Peoples’ Festival, a showcase of aboriginal art, history and traditions both old and new. The annual event is a one-of-a-kind multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-disciplinary celebration of indigenous peoples on Turtle Island and around the world.

The festival began with films June 11 and ended with a ceremony in the First Nations Garden at the Montreal Botanical Gardens, celebrating the summer solstice June 21, National Aboriginal Day in Canada, which was created by the federal government “to recognize the unparalleled contributions Indians, Inuit, and Metis have made to the development of Canada.”