We are pleased to share a recording of the literary evening featuring Witi Ihimaera in Montréal this past August.
The conversation is moderated by André Dudemaine (Innu), artistic director of Terres en vues. Witi Ihimaera responds to live readings of carefully selected excerpts from his work with some other of his stories, songs, and a unique unpublished text.
“It was a beautiful experience to witness two great Indigenous artists elders – an Innu producer and a Maori writer – honoring each other’s work and enjoying each other presence and exchange so joyfully on stage.”
~ Gracelynn Chung Yan Lau, PhD candidate
Graduate Program in Cultural Studies
Queen’s University
Held at the McCord Museum and on Zoom, the literary evening was jointly presented by the Festival international Présence autochtone, a research project led by Dr. St-Amand at Queen’s University, and the McCord Stewart Museum.
Rencontre-discussion cinéma autochtone/Indigenous Cinema Meeting
An Indigenous cinema meeting took place last August at the Université du Québec à Montréal and on Zoom, also as part of the festival. The meeting brought together local and international filmmakers and scholars to discuss current projects, ideas, and visions for the near future. The meeting was a way to develop and nourish key connections while brainstorming toward relevant questions to consider for the next international conference Regards autochtones sur les Amériques / Revisioning the Americas through Indigenous Cinema / Conferencia Visiones indígenas sobre las Américas.
Like the conference, this meeting was co-organized out of Queen’s University by PI. Dr. St-Amand in partnership with Terres en vues and collaboration with the Kanien’kehaka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center (KOR).
The literary evening and the Indigenous-cinema meeting received the generous support of:
- Queen’s Faculty of Arts and Science’s Office of Equity, Diversity, Indigeneity, and Inclusion (EDII)
- The SSHRC Connection “Revisioning the Americas through Indigenous Cinema” project
- The Department of French Studies at Queen’s University
- The Department of English Studies at Queen’s University
- The Vulnerable Media Lab’s “Minor Archives of the Americas” project
- The Groupe d’études et de recherches axées sur la communication internationale et interculturelle (GERACII) at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
The Montréal First Peoples’ Festival
The Montréal First Peoples’ Festival international Présence autochtone showcases the artistry and cultural renaissance of Indigenous peoples from across the Americas and the world. The multidisciplinary event unfolds over ten days of creation, encounters, and discoveries in August. The Place des Festivals, with its giant teepee, becomes a nucleus of intense artistic activity that radiates throughout the city. The programming centers on First People’s cinema, crowd-drawing concerts, and Indigenous performing arts in a wide variety of forms and expressions.