Indigenous Voices Awards
The Indigenous Voices Awards are a Canadian literary award program, created in 2017 to honour indigenous literatures in Canada.
The awards grew out of a 2017 controversy, when a group of Canadian writers were criticized for campaigning on Twitter in favour of a prize supporting cultural appropriation. In response, Toronto lawyer Robin Parker launched a crowdfunding campaign to create a new prize for First Nations, Métis and Inuit writers in Canada. The crowdfunding campaign was set with a goal of $10,000, but ultimately attracted over $140,000 in donations.
The awards honour both published and unpublished work by indigenous writers. The first winners were announced in May 2018.Winners
2018
- English Prose: Aviaq Johnston, Those Who Run in the Sky
- English Poetry: Billy-Ray Belcourt, This Wound Is a World
- French Prose: J. D. Kurtness, De Vengeance
- Alternative Format: Mich Cota, Musical Selections and Mika Lafond, Nipê Wânîn
- Unpublished English Poetry: Smokii Sumac, #haikuaday and other poems
- Unpublished French Poetry: Marie-Andrée Gill, Uashteu
- Unpublished Prose: Elaine McArthur, Queen Bee
2019
- English Prose: Tanya Tagaq, Split Tooth
- English Poetry: Smokii Sumac, You are Enough: Love Poems for the End of the World
- French Prose: Josephine Bacon, Uiesh, Quelque Part and Pierrot Ross-Tremblay, Nipimanitu – L’esprit de l’eau
- Alternative Format: Tasha Spillett and Natasha Donovan, Surviving the City
- Unpublished Poetry: Elaine McArthur, Brush of a Bustle
- Unpublished Prose: Francine Cunningham, Teenage Asylums
