The Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival (VIMAF) recently wrapped up its third annual event last week. This year’s festival ran from the 6 – 11 of November and hosted a number of events across downtown Vancouver, with venues ranging from the Central Library to SFU Woodwards to the NFB. The festival is an opportunity for indigenous artists working in the field to showcase their works, and perhaps even more importantly, for the public to engage with these artists in the issues surrounding indigeneity in a contemporary context.

While the works featured and the topics discussed at VIMAF may diverge from traditional indigenous artistic expression, the organizers of the festival stress the underlying element that ties together the variety of works showcased over the course of the week: storytelling. In this sense, new media technologies have provided indigenous artists with a new venue, a new voice in which to relate their histories, traditions, and contemporary issues with not just their own communities, but with the wider public.

The festival’s programming includes screenings, panel discussions, workshops and networking opportunities that help indigenous artists in the field to build personal and industry connections. Full details from this year’s festival can be found here.