Come together June 17 and 18 weekend on Garrison Common at Fort York in celebration of Indigenous Peoples Month. Join this free, community-focused and family-friendly event with traditional and contemporary music, dance, artisan and culinary experiences of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples of Turtle Island.
On Saturday, June 17, experience the annual Traditional Pow Wow hosted by Na-Me-Res Native Men’s Residence with drummers and dancers.
On Sunday, June 18, enjoy the Indigenous Arts Festival’s full-day live concert featuring contemporary and traditional Indigenous musical performers.
Throughout the weekend, explore the vibrant Artisans and Food Markets where beautiful Native handmade artful items and savory Indigenous dishes are available.
January Rogers is the Indigenous Arts Festival curator for 2023.
January is a Mohawk/Tuscarora poet, media producer, performance, sound artist and at current, Western University’s Writer in Residence (2022/23) and mentor for Audible Indigenous Writers Circle (2022 and 2023). She lives on her home territory of Six Nations of the Grand River where she operates Ojistoh Publishing and Productions. She has seven published poetry titles and her literary talents combined with her passion for media making won her many awards, such as Best Music Video at the American Indian Film Festival in 2020, the Best Experimental Sound prize at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Festival in 2021.
It is a great honour to activate the role as Indigenous Arts Festival Curator. I approach this role with the responsibility and respect required to engage with Indigenous artists representative of Treaty 13 upon where the Festival is held. I look forward to creating a great day of memorable celebration with the Festival performers and the hard working City of Toronto and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation partners. I have been able to draw from a rich talent pool of Indigenous artists to produce a meaningful and very inspirational community-focused day of Indigenous excellence.
– January Rogers