Festival Innu Nikamu

Innu Nikamu is a unique concept
Near Sept-Îles, on Quebec's North Shore, the community of Maliotenam has long been a meeting and gathering place for the Innu people of the region. After the final closure of the residential school in the mid-1970s, the community took on a new lease of life and earned a reputation as a cradle of artists and musicians.

Founded in 1984 by a small team of dreamers, the Innu Nikamu Festival is supported by an entire community that gathers around music and expresses its identity through its art and creativity. This great family celebration, without alcohol, brings together the various Aboriginal nations that meet or reunite annually during these four days of performances by musicians and performers.

From its beginnings as an artisanal and local event, the festival has evolved over the years. The organization and programming became more professional. A traditional summer gathering place for Aboriginal artisans and families, the event gradually opened up to the non-Aboriginal population of the territory. Quebec artists share the stage as special guests, and citizens from the region and neighboring towns, particularly Sept-Îles, are invited to participate in the festivities, thus creating a link between the different communities living on the North Shore.

After 33 years of musical gatherings, the Innu Nikamu Festival has become one of the most important Aboriginal music and art festivals in North America and features musicians, artists, and performers from the First Nations of Quebec and Canada, as well as international guests. The event, one of the only ones located on an Aboriginal reserve, is still held on the bucolic site of the former Notre-Dame de Maliotenam Residential School, transforming this place with its heavy past into a place to celebrate a culture that refuses to die out.  

Since 1985, Innu Nikamu has been held on the first weekend of August. In 2018, the festival will take place from August 2 to 5.