A wave of First Peoples presence is expected to sweep through Montreal August 5 to 15 The wave of creativity rising among the Indigenous peoples of the world, bearers of millennia-old traditions and prophetic visions, will bring a tsunami of diverse activities to the city, ranging from film to music, dance to performance, skateboarding to drumming—a seismic movement heralding the transformations to come.

Does Montreal deserve the title of most anti-MAGA city in the Americas? At FIPA (Festival international Présence Autochtone), we dare to believe so.

Under its new flag, at the center of which shines the great white pine, symbol of the indigenousness of the place, major concerts will make the stars shine in the sky and on stage. Notably, a great polyphonic work, Song to the Whales with Bunna Lawrie, a wise Aboriginal man with a dreamlike connection to the spirit of whales and guest of honour who will participate in the concert-ritual with voices from Aotearoa and Nunavik.

August 6th and 7th, at Place des Festivals. From Portland, another city that could compete for the title above attributed to Montreal, comes the liberating punk rock of the band 1876, preceded by Kong, a super-rapper from Whapmagoostui (Poste-à-la-baleine, incidentally). And, in a unique concert entitled Les passeurs, the songs and poetry of Jacques Newashish, an Atikamekw elder, and Andrée Lévesque-Sioui, a Wendat artist, will be accompanied by the guitars of Forestare on Sunday, August 10th.

In 2025, a major tribute will be paid to Innu song with the world premiere of the film Florent Vollant: Innu and performances by the groups Maten, Shauit, and Native Mafia Family. Incidentally, in the FIPA program, Indigenous languages flourish in song as well as in cinema. Notable examples include Ka Whawhai Tonu, a historical fiction film in the Maori language, and Kinra, a feature film set in contemporary Peru that follows a young Aymara man in search of his destiny. And Amazonian languages, such as Apalaï spoken in Bibiru, the story of a dog struck by bad luck, and Mbya Guarani in Canuto, built around the legend of a man transformed into a leopard, the film imperceptibly shifts from documentary to fiction.

The festival offers an immersion into the diverse and little-known cultures of the indigenous peoples of our Mother Earth, rooted in thousands of years of history. In the Atacama Desert, Aymara territory, a unique ecosystem where indigenous traditions coexist with the most advanced astronomical observatories and NASA robots being tested there for the exploration of Mars. Also worth seeing is The Falling Sky (Cannes, Directors’Fortnight 2024) with the powerful voice of Davi Kopenawa, Yanomami shaman and leader. Another unique experience is Sanajiit ᓴᓇᔩᑦ (Inuit Makers), an innovative documentary series completed in 2025 that offers an immersive journey into the heart of Inuit creativity and tradition, life as it unfolds naturally in real time.

Song to the Whales

An Ode to Ocean Life, a Collective Work Bringing Together Artists from Three Countries.

Oktoecho, in collaboration with the Australian collective Corrina Bonshek & Collaborators, presents Song to the Whales, a large-scale international musical project bringing together Inuit, Maori, and Indigenous artists, as well as other artists from Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. All are united around a common theme—whales and ocean

Inspired by traditional Maori, Indigenous, and Inuit songs, the work blends ancestral voices with contemporary instrumentation. The piece takes the form of an immersive show that combines music, storytelling, and the sounds of nature. It will be a sensory journey celebrating the symbolic power of the whale, a ritual of reconnection with the ocean, a moving incantation touching on the very sources of life, a spellbinding experience that will leave joy and hope in its harmonious wake.

The project is co-directed and composed by Corrina Bonshek (Australia) and Katia Makdissi-Warren (Canada), in close collaboration with renowned artists:

Whaia Sonic Weaver – Maori singer
Uncle Bunna Lawrie – Aboriginal singer, storyteller, and activist
Nina Segalowitz & Lydia Etok – Inuit throat singers and co-artistic directors of Oktoecho
And musicians: Greta Kelly, Étienne Lafrance, Bertil Schulrabe, Michael Askill, and Jason Lee Scot

Song to the Whales (Chant de la Baleine) concerts in North America and Australia

  • August 6 and 7, 2025, at 9:30 p.m. – Montreal First Peoples festival (FIPA)
  • August 15 and 16, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. – Niagara Parks
  • September 6, 2025 – (venue to be confirmed) New York
  • October 2026 – Tour in Australia

For more information visit Montreal First Peoples festival website