2nd Annual Canadian Aboriginal Youth Writing Challenge
Greetings Educators and Community Leaders!
The Canadian Aboriginal Youth Writing Challenge is happening again for the 2005-2006 school year (visit http://www.our-story.ca).
Inspired by the launch of the publication Our Story in 2004, last year the Dominion Institute and Enbridge Inc. challenged young Aboriginal high school students to sharpen their pencils and contribute a short story (800-1400 words) that explored a great moment in Aboriginal history - and the results were phenomenal!
Submissions included topics such as residential schools, the signing of the numbered treaties, the extinction of the Beothuk and passing on traditions between generations. With her story First Contact, Nicole Nicholas of Victoria, BC, was chosen as the 2005 winner by a panel of judges that included Tantoo Cardinal, Tomson Highway, Dwight Dorey and Jose Kusugak.
The first-prize winner will receive a $500 Prize, the opportunity to be profiled in a Canadian Learning Television and Book Television production, to be published in The Beaver Magazine: Canada's History Magazine and to travel to Ottawa to read an excerpt from his/her story at a special celebration event. Students with a story in the top ten will receive a $200 prize. All winning essays will be published online and all participants will receive a letter of recognition for their participation.
The deadline for submissions is May 6, 2006.
There will be special prizes for classes that participate as a group.
If you are interested in encouraging a student or an entire class to participate in the Canadian Aboriginal Youth Writing Challenge please call 1-866-701-1867 or visit http://www.our-story.ca.
Published by Doubleday Canada, Our Story is on sale in bookstores across Canada. Our Story brings together nine leading Aboriginal authors from across the country to explore great moments in history and to consider the significance of these events for Canada's Aboriginal Peoples.
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Annie Lindsay
Programme Coordinator
The Dominion Institute
416.368.9627 or 866.701.1867
fax 416.368.2111
annie@dominion.ca