Jam-packed festival will celebrate Indigenous creativity and brilliance

This year marks the fifth annual award-winning Indigenous Arts Festival ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷiwəl – Come Toward the Fire, scheduled for Sept. 18 to Sept. 20 in Musqueam (Vancouver).

It’s “the biggest program that we've ever programmed,” said festival head curator Jarrett Martineau. “We have more than two dozen artists from across the continent participating and performing, and we've expanded the festival to three days.”

The festival’s name was given by Musqueam Elder and language keeper Larry Grant. The event was created to amplify Indigenous voices while creating a space to celebrate Indigenous creativity, brilliance and culture.

The festival will be held at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts and other locations at the University of British Columbia (UBC) with a day of free events slated for Friday Sept. 18. This free day is a dedicated Day of Knowledge Sharing, adding to the already packed weekend schedule.

Friday will be “an opportunity to learn more about Indigenous cultures, languages, art practices and histories, including Musqueam, on whose unceded territory UBC is located,” said Martineau.

Friday’s schedule will run from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. starting with an opening welcome from Musqueam First Nation. Special performances by Coastal Wolf Pack and Cree/Métis folk trio Burnstick will be followed by workshops, cultural tours, film screenings, video art, an Indigenous artisan market, artist roundtables and learning discussions at venues across the UBC campus, including the Chan Centre, Museum of Anthropology, Belkin Gallery, UBC First Nations House of Learning, and the UBC Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. 

Included in the long list of events is the Vancouver debuts of rising Indigenous performers LOV, Siibii, and Kalyn Fay, alongside a headline concert hosted by acclaimed actor, comedian, and activist Dallas Goldtooth, star of the hit series Reservation Dogs.

The event received financial support from the Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund and will also include a screening of Gord Downie’s The Secret Path animated film.

Secret Path is a multimedia story about Chanie Wenjack, a 12-year-old Anishinaabe boy who died in 1966 after escaping from the Cecilia Jeffery Indian Residential School near Kenora, Ont.

Downie, the late former frontman of the Tragically Hip, created a 10-song album, which grew into an 88-page graphic novel illustrated by Jeff Lemire, and the animated film broadcast by CBC. 

“Saturday Sept. 19 is our main festival day and it will feature indoor and outdoor performances of music, dance, storytellers and poets from more than 15 artists; films programmed in collaboration with imagineNATIVE, the world's largest Indigenous film and media festival,” Martineau said. There’s also a literary program curated by Indigenous bookstore Iron Dog Books, skateboarding workshops by Nations Skate Youth, the Indigenous vendor market featuring more than 35 vendors, Indigenous food trucks, and music performances by 10 artists.

Saturday’s line-up will included Burnstick, Francis Baptiste, Caley Watts, G̱a̱mksimoon, Curtis Clear Sky and the Constellationz, Joey Stylez, Semiah, and Eagle Ex Machina.

Baptiste is an Indigenous songwriter and artist based in Vancouver, originally from the Osoyoos Indian Band. His work focuses on sharing the nsyilxcən language.

“In addition to the wonderful songs that he writes, Francis has an important perspective on the work of re-learning and singing in his nsyilxcən language and this year he's involved on both Friday and Saturday,” said Martineau.  

“On the Day of Knowledge Sharing he'll be part of an artist roundtable on Indigenous language revitalization through music and on Saturday he'll be one of the performing artists on our main stage.”

In the past five years Baptiste has released three albums, integrating his traditional language into several of his songs.

Baptiste said as part of his commitment to preserving his culture, he has spent a lot of time learning his language and trying to put it into songs to help others from his community learn the endangered language.

“A lot of people in our community, most people in our community, don’t speak it. Like my father’s generation didn’t speak it at all. When my grandmother died, she was the last fluent speaker in my family,” Baptiste said. “It was her death that kind of prompted me to give it my attention and start taking it more seriously, because it’s a vital part of our ancestry and our people might possibly slip away forever.”

Quelemia Sparrow, an interdisciplinary theatre artist, will also be taking the stage as a host and storyteller.

“Quelemia is a wonderful artist from Musqueam. She's hosted our main stage concert previously and shared traditional stories in our Cedar Grove stage and we wanted to welcome her back again this year to host one of the stages on Saturday and to share more stories from her community as part of our commitment to uplifting Musqueam voices,” said Martineau.

Quelemia said she is honoured to be participating in the event again this year and is looking forward to sharing her stories with the audience at the festival.

“We’re so talented across Turtle Islands. To be able to see so many incredible performances from various nations, even if I wasn’t hosting I would be there checking out all the performances and seeing everyone,” she said. “It’s an incredible community event.”

The final concert will be held in the Chan Shun Concert Hall at the Chan Centre and will be hosted by Goldtooth, featuring performances by Aysanabee, Logan Staats, Boslen, Siibii, and Coastal Wolf Pack.

“There are so many amazing Indigenous artists out there that we can't fit everyone in a single year's program, so we are continuously looking at who could be available to join us the following year. We do our best to program a wide range of Indigenous nations and musical genres, as well as to prioritize inviting Musqueam and local artists from Vancouver,” said Martineau, adding it takes the entire year to curate the festival. 

For a full schedule and tickets to the event visit Come Toward the Fire: Sept 18 - 20, 2026