Talking Stick Festival

We’re deeply grateful to our community of artists, collaborators, and partners who uplift and champion Indigenous voices through the performing arts. Your generosity, creativity, and commitment in supporting NDN Acts make this work possible—on stage, behind the scenes, and in our communities. Thank you for being part of this journey. #IndigenousArts #PerformingArts #CommunityStrong #Gratitude #NDNActs

WORLD PREMIERE at The Cultch: On Native Land A powerful new musical written and directed by Corey Payette, On Native Land follows the intersecting lives of a lawyer, a Chief, and a rising singer-songwriter in a moving story of identity, land, and love. Centering urban Indigenous experiences, this sweeping production offers both solace and solidarity—grounded in tradition and carried by a contemporary score inspired by Broadway favourites like Company and Dear Evan Hansen. APR 08–19, 2026 📍YORK THEATRE 🎟 Tickets available at: /event/on-native-land/ #OnNativeLand #TheCultch #YVRArts #IndigenousArts #WorldPremiere #VancouverEvents #IndigenousVoices @thecultch @coreypayette @urbaninkvan

Book Launch: Tess’s Red Dress: Honouring Love and Family with Carolyn Roberts 🗓 Sunday, April 12 | 11 AM 📍 Massy Books (229 E Georgia St, Vancouver) Join Massy Books & Medicine Wheel Publishing as they host St’at’imc and Sto:lo author Carolyn Roberts for the launch of Tess’s Red Dress: Honouring Love and Family. This powerful children’s book shares a story of love, family, and remembrance in honour of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People. 🎟 Free event! Register via the link in @massybooks bio! #MassyBooks #IndigenousAuthor #VancouverEvents #BookLaunch #MMIWG2S #IndigenousStories @indigenouseducation2023 @medicinewheelpublishing @irondogbooks @massybooks @massybooksevents

🎭 Ten artists, five bold new works—NDN Acts is live this Friday! 🗓 Friday, March 20 · 7:00 PM 📍 Roundhouse Community Centre 🎟 Free #indigenousarts #vancouverevents #talkingstickfestival #roundhouse

Lighting the Next Fire 🗓 Sunday, March 22 · 4:00 PM onward� 📍 Second Beach 🎟 FREE - RSVP Required Join us by the water to close the Talking Stick Festival with an evening of drumming, song, story exchange, and a community feast. A gathering to celebrate, reflect, and come together in community. RSVP: [email protected] #TalkingStickFestival #LightingTheNextFire #IndigenousCommunity

Talking Stick Festival Presents: Night Shift: NDN Takeover 🗓 Friday, March 20 · 8:30 PM� 📍 Roundhouse Community Centre �🎟 Free An evening of progressive Indigenous sound featuring live performances by @edziumusic and @hayleycwallis and closing with a DJ set from @djkookum ! Electronic, soulful, and groove-driven music that gathers, uplifts, and celebrates contemporary Indigenous artists. #TalkingStickFestival #NDNTakeover #IndigenousMusic #VancouverEvents

Cultivating Kin 🗓 Saturday, March 21 · 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM� 📍 SFU Woodward’s �🎟 FREE - RSVP Required An intimate gathering for artists, culture workers, and community centered on restoring right relations in our creative practices. Grounded in the 5Rs - respect, relationality, responsibility, relevancy, and reciprocity, the day invites dialogue, embodied practice, and collective reflection rooted in Indigenous and diasporic worldviews. RSVP to [email protected] #TalkingStickFestival #CultivatingKin #IndigenousArts #CommunityGathering

The Treasured Memories Contest is now LIVE! 💌 In honour of Talking Stick Festival's theme, Cultivating Kin, we invite you to share the story of a meaningful object in your life - a keepsake, heirloom, gift, or everyday item that carries memory and connection. How to enter: 📸 Upload a photo of your object ✍️ Write a short story (50 words max) 📝 Submit your entry through our website Selected submissions will be featured online, and the three stories with the most votes will win! Submit your story: https://fullcircle.ca/2026-cultivating-kin-contest/ #TalkingStickFestival #CultivatingKin #VancouverArts #Storytelling #Community

Talking Stick Festival presents: NDN Acts 🗓 March 20 · 7 PM 📍 Roundhouse Community Centre 🎟 Free NDN Acts opens the Talking Stick Festival with six brand-new works by Indigenous artists, curated by Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen. Created across disciplines and shared publicly for the first time, these collaborations respond to this year’s theme, Cultivating Kin. Expect theatre, film, music, dance, comedy, and performance art in one dynamic evening celebrating twelve Indigenous artists creating together. #talkingstickfestival #indigenousarts #VancouverEvents

AMBIENT/ETC – OUTDOOR EDITION 002 Presented by Low Indigo & Chaythoos A-Frame 🌿 Sunday, March 22 · 2–6pm 📍 Ceperley Park 💚 Free / By Donation An afternoon of live ambient music, plant knowledge, and nature listening to celebrate the first day of spring. Featuring: • Matthew Cardinal – live hardware set (Edmonton) • Soloman Chiniquay & Daria Pasqua Whitestar – live hardware duo • Cease Wyss – plant knowledge, live plant music & synthesis • Michael Red – nature sounds & ambient dubbing • Sharon Kallis – plant knowledge + hands-on activities Bring blankets, snacks, and good community energy! #Community #VancouverArts

SeedPool Immersion: Connect. Collaborate. Co-Create. Join Arrivals Legacy Project Artistic Director @di_robee , Digital Producer Anju Singh and SeedPool Artist @SharonJinkersonBrass for an interactive exploration of ALP’s digital SeedPool Gallery. Sunday 22 March, 11am -1:30 pm at The World Art Centre, SFU in Vancouver Presented by @talkingstickfst North America's Premier Indigenous Arts and Culture Festival The SeedPool Gallery (www.seedpool.ca) exhibits the emerging stories that our SeedPool artists have chosen to share with the world. It’s a space for provocation - a space to connect ideas, memory and experiences, and for audiences to experience ancestry-inspired art in the making. SeedPool is a virtual meeting place for alums from the Arrivals workshops to connect, co-create and collaborate as they bring fragments of memories and creative insights gleaned from their encounters with their ancestral sources. In the process they act as both witnesses and artist contributors to one another’s emerging stories. In this session you will learn about the vision and values that drive the SeedPool collaborative process. We ask the question: How do we build a sustainable and scalable collaborative space cultivated from a common/shared root system? You’ll also have the opportunity to co-create seeds in response. Base image by Nadia Myre. #ArrivalsLegacyProject #ArrivalsAlum #ALPSeedPool #Ancestors #art #artlife #collaboration #decolonise #decolonize #colab #canadianartist #multidisciplinary #interdisciplinary #create #learn #community #bcarts #vancouver #yvr #dailyhiveyvr

To honour this year’s theme of Cultivating Kin, we’re inviting you to share the story of a meaningful object in your life - a keepsake, heirloom, gift, or everyday item that carries memory and connection. Stay tuned for more details!