March 2, 2026 Submissions
General Expert Panel comments
Comments made by the Expert Panel during its assessment of applications submitted to the March 2, 2026, deadline are outlined below. Please note that these comments provide a summary of the Expert Panel’s assessment and do not necessarily relate to every unsuccessful application submitted to this deadline. The panel does not provide individual comments.
General Comments
- Please be sure that your description clearly outlines how you plan to do your project, because vague descriptions make it difficult for the Expert Panel to understand what your goals and intentions are.
- Including a timeline or schedule of activity is a valuable component of your project description. This helps the Expert Panel better understand how and when you plan to undertake your activities.
- The panel prioritized projects where a clear connection to Indigenous culture was made explicit. For example: sharing your personal connection to that community, how you are following Indigenous protocol, and including names of Knowledge Keepers and/or Elders that are being consulted.
- The Expert Panel was impressed with the diversity of projects and the quality of activities in the province.
- When consulting with Elders and/or Knowledge Keepers, it is helpful to clarify how and why these are relevant to the project.
- Please describe your lived experience and relationship to your Indigenous nation(s), community, culture(s). For example, what nation or community you come from, and who your family is. How does this context inform your work as an Indigenous storyteller?
- An unsuccessful grant request did not necessarily mean your project was without artistic merit. Not all strong projects could be supported. The panel encourages applicants to reapply in the future, and to reach out to AFA consultants for feedback prior to next submission.
- Artificial Intelligence is a useful tool to enhance human capabilities but should not be used to replace them. The adoption of AI must be ethically responsible and carefully considered.
- If using AI, it must be transparent and accountable. Please provide contextual information about its usage to ensure understanding and trust.
Budgets
- Budgets should be sufficiently detailed to give the Panel all the information they need to evaluate the potential of a project.
- Budgets demonstrating that expenses were researched did better than those without support materials. Example: Included quotes or invoices (where relevant), and/or budget notes stating which websites and other sources were used.
- When you have pending revenue in your budget (in addition to the AFA grant you are asking for), the application is strengthened if a contingency plan is provided. For example: If the only revenue received is the AFA grant, can you still do the project as proposed, or can you modify it to fit a smaller budget?
Support material
- Please reach out to AFA prior to deadline if you need help with preparing or providing support material items (images, video, etc.). Assistance can be provided on request.
- Please provide support materials as outlined in the guidelines on the website. Example: do not provide streaming or website links. The Expert Panel do not have time to do additional research due to volume of applications.
- Please provide enough images or work samples to provide a clear sense of your work. If images do not reflect the proposed project, provide a context.
- For images, ideally have one image per page. Adding multiple images or design elements, your artwork may be more difficult to see clearly.