Aboriginal youth aged 14-29 are invited to submit stories and artwork exploring a moment in Aboriginal history to the expanded Canadian Aboriginal Writing and Arts Challenge.
“Young indigenous voices from across Canada dazzled last year,” said Joseph Boyden, an Aboriginal playwright and author who won the 2008 Giller Prize for his book Through Black Spruce. “We believe that this important contest will continue to discover more and more talented Aboriginal youth.”
Boyden will be judging entries to the contest, which is presented by Enbridge Inc. and the Historica-Dominion Institute, along with fellow playwright and author Drew Hayden Taylor and artists Kent Monkman and Maxine Noel.
“Enbridge is extremely proud to partner with The Historica-Dominion Institute for the seventh Canadian Aboriginal Writing Challenge – this year expanding to become the Canadian Aboriginal Writing and Arts Challenge,” said Dan O’Grady, national manager, community partnerships & investment with Enbridge Inc. “By expanding the challenge to include writing and the arts, we hope to reach a new audience of Aboriginal youth, offering them an important opportunity to share their artistic expressions (stories, paintings, sculptures and photography) with the rest of Canada and help foster an ongoing understanding of Aboriginal culture.”
The contest deadline is March 31; information is available at http://www.our-story.ca/wc.
Art submissions must be two-dimensional in nature from a variety of media, including painting, sketching, charcoal and photography. Artists need to submit a 200-400 word artist’s statement explaining how their piece reflects or interprets the moment or theme selected.
Written submissions can include storytelling of all styles, including short stories, plays, poetry and screenplays, with story length guidelines set at no longer than 1,400 words for ages 14-18 and below 2,000 words for ages of 19-29. Writers need to submit a 200-400 word author’s statement explaining why they chose to write about the subject selected.
When I was a boy growing up in my home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast, I was deathly afraid of looking at the full moon.
When I was a boy growing up in my home community of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast, I was deathly afraid of looking at the full moon.
I grew up...
I’m happy to see the ongoing support and assistance in our northern remote communities to help our people cope with so many lifelong and generational issues...