CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Dear educators, practitioners, facilitators and artists:

Warm greetings from the organizing team of the Indigenous Theatre Festival! We are thrilled to share that our next gathering, Staging Our Voices, will be held on Coast Salish Territory at the University of Victoria’s Chief Dan George Theatre on September 12 & 13, 2025.

Building on the powerful energy of our 2022 festival—which celebrated the power of storytelling as a means of cultural preservation and language revitalization—we once again invite Indigenous artists to come together and showcase how Indigenous languages are vibrant, living forms of artistic expression.

Why this festival?

Staging Our Voices reflects our collective journey to bring Indigenous languages to life on stage, to unite performances, to community building, and to cultural exchange.

  • Drawing inspiration from the 2022 festival, we will continue hosting performances, workshops, lectures and discussions focusing on engaging diverse audiences - including those who may not speak the languages featured.

  • By highlighting Indigenous languages as dynamic media of creativity, we hope to ignite further interest in learning, speaking, and celebrating them. Resources developed by this festival will be made available to communities who seek to integrate drama into their language programs.

Who can participate?

We welcome educators, practitioners, facilitators and artists of all backgrounds and disciplines—including theatre, dance, music, poetry, short films, visual arts, carving, painting, installations, and more—to join in this celebration. We aim to foster a shared space for Indigenous artists to support one another, learn together, and amplify the beauty of their languages through creative expression.

How to Submit?

If you’d like to be part of the festival, please send us the following at ksadeghi@uvic.ca by May 5, 2025:

  1. High-resolution photo/headshot (portrait preferred)

  2. Short bio (250–300 words)

  3. Brief description of your proposed performance, talk, project, or workshop

You will be notified of your submission status by May 30, 2025. We offer an honorarium and can help you secure travel funding.

By uniting our voices and celebrating the vitality of Indigenous languages, we hope to inspire the next generation of Indigenous language learners, practitioners, and audience members. Thank you for considering this invitation to Staging Our Voices—we can’t wait to see the power you’ll bring to the festival.

Warmly,

Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta

On behalf of the ITF coordination team: Kirsten, Atefeh, Narges, Tara, and Ruth.

250-721 6218