Aboriginal Arts & Stories (formerly The Canadian Aboriginal Writing Challenge) began in 2005 as a national writing competition for Aboriginal youth. In 2010, Historica Canada introduced an expanded challenge that would now include a visual arts component. Aboriginal youth, between the ages of 11-29, are invited to submit a piece of creative writing (past entries have included short stories, plays, screenplays and collections of poetry), or a piece of two-dimensional artwork that captures a defining moment in Aboriginal history or culture. Participants have a chance to win up to $2,000 and have their work published or exhibited, and groups with 6 or more individual submissions are eligible for additional prizes! To date close to 2,000 Aboriginal youth have participated in the program. This program has been fortunate to earn large scale support from Aboriginal Arts and Literary communities across Canada, and winning entries are selected by a jury of esteemed Aboriginal authors, artists and leaders including Maxine Noel, Drew Hayden Taylor, Lee Maracle, John Kim Bell, and Kent Monkman.