Eligibility
The contest is open to Canadians of Indigenous ancestry (self-identified Status, Non-Status, Inuit and Métis) between the ages of 6 and 29.
Guidelines
Create a writing or art piece that explores Indigenous heritage or culture.
Your entry into the Indigenous Arts & Stories competition must include a 200-400 word artist’s or author’s statement that includes a few words about you and explains how your piece explores Indigenous heritage and culture.
You may enter online with your desktop computer, or by mail.
Competition Prizing
First Place
First place winners in age categories 14-18 and 19-29 will receive:
• a $2000 cash prize;
• an all-expenses-paid trip to the Governor General’s History Awards
First places in age categories 6-9 and 10-13 will receive:
• One winner from both writing and arts will be selected, and each winner will receive a prize valued at $100, and will have their work featured on the contest website.
Second Place
Second place finalists in age categories 14-18 and 19-29 will receive a $1000 cash prize.
Third Place
Third place finalists in age categories 14-18 and 19-29 will receive a $500 cash prize.
4th to 5th place Finalists in the Arts Competition in age categories 14-18 and 19-29 will each receive a $100 cash prize.
4th and 5th place Finalists in the Stories Competition in age categories 14-18 and 19-29 will each receive a $100 cash prize.
All finalists will have their writing and artwork published on the contest website.
Group entries are eligible for a special prize. Past prizes have included a digital camera for the winning school or group!
Deadline
Please check the website for this year's deadline.
About
Indigenous Arts & Stories (formerly the Canadian Aboriginal Writing and Arts Challenge) was born in 2005 out of the success of Our Story: Aboriginal Voices on Canada’s Past published by Doubleday Canada in which nine leading Indigenous authors from across the country, including Tantoo Cardinal, Tom King and Drew Hayden Taylor, contributed a short fictional story about a defining moment in Indigenous history. The program quickly became the largest and most recognizable creative writing competition in Canada for Indigenous youth.
In 2010, Historica Canada (formerly The Historica-Dominion Institute) announced the expansion of the program into arts, making the competition available to a new audience of Indigenous youth – those who are not writers, but instead express themselves through painting, drawing and photography. We believe that the expanded program gives start to the next generation of both great Indigenous authors and artists. Indigenous Arts & Stories has earned large scale support from the Indigenous arts and literary community, including those that comprise the patrons and advisory committee. More than 3,000 emerging Indigenous writers and artists from every province and territory in Canada have participated in the contest since 2005.