Origins: Festival of First Nations Held in London

Indigenous musicians, theatre-makers, visual artists, film-makers and cooks from around the globe are traveling to London for the Origins First Nations Festival.

But it's not your standard festival of performance - it's "a space for dialogue between artists and London audiences... to exhibit and explain, to perform and inform, to debate and celebrate".

Exciting stuff. As is their emphasis that while Indigenous cultures are ancient, they're neither dead nor outdated. Artists will be contributing their views on current issues - climate change, human rights, globalization and colonialism.

Colonialism is back with a vengeance. The only difference today is that the aggressors are not privateers and pioneers armed with beads and bibles, but international corporations, so powerful and so prosperous that they answer to no government, but rather expect governments to answer to them. ... What’s more, many of the mining companies –Rio Tinto being the prime example – are run from the City of London. It’s high time that the indigenous people come to London, and that their voices are heard in what remains a centre of colonial aggression.

That’s what the Origins Festival is aiming to do, writes Micheal Walling, in the New Internationalist: First Nations festival kicks off in London

The Origins: First Nations Festival takes place June 28-July 9, 2011 in London, UK. Visit originsfestival.bordercrossings.org.uk for full event listings.