ᑲᑫᔪ ᐊᒐᐦᑯᐃᐧᐠ Kakeyo ka acakowihk is an international symposium and cultural festival devoted to Indigenous and local knowledges, performance, ceremonies, and living artistic traditions. Taking place on June 8–9, 2026, at the University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland), the event brings together Indigenous artists, knowledge keepers, performers, scholars, students, and local communities for two days of shared practice, dialogue, and celebration.
Co-organized by Floyd Favel (Poundmaker Cree Nation, Canada)—the originator of the event—together with scholars from the Trans-Indigena Research Team at the University of Silesia, the gathering is grounded in Indigenous oral traditions and land-based performance methodologies. Guided by the theme Kakeyo ka acakowihk— “All Is Spirit,” as expressed in the Cree language—the symposium affirms a core Indigenous idea and philosophical tenet: that all beings, human and more than human, are alive, interconnected, and animated by spirit and energy.
The program features internationally recognized practitioners, including Charles Koroneho (Aotearoa / New Zealand), whose work explores the poetics of land, water, and sky, and Ewa Benesz (Italy), whose artistic practice originates in the Grotowski tradition and bridges ritual theatre, embodied knowledge, and intercultural performance. They are joined by Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars and artists from Canada and Poland, contributing to sharing circles, performances, film screening, poetry, presentations of books based on Indigenous traditional stories, transmitted through living oral practices and intergenerational knowledge transfer and collective reflection.
Rather than framing Indigenous performance through Western theatrical and academic models, Kakeyo ka acakowihkcreates a space where Indigenous methodologies speak in their own voices—supporting cultural continuity, intercultural exchange, artistic research, and practices of healing. The event welcomes all who wish to listen, learn, and participate in a respectful, relational encounter with Indigenous worldviews and performance traditions.
For more information contact: Dr. Sabina Sweta Sen-Podstawska sabina.sen@us.edu.pl
