Montréal Québec H3H 2S6
Canada
Strengthened by its Collection—spanning archives, prints & drawings, photography and new media, library holdings—and based on its exhibitions, programs, and research opportunities, the CCA is advancing knowledge, promoting public understanding, and widening the debate on architecture, a practice that is inextricably tied to site, territory and land.
Situated in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal, which is located on the territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) people, the CCA is a settler institution, currently working on a living land acknowledgement project to foster positive relationships based on equity, accessibility and inclusion with Indigenous communities across Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal.
We now invite applications for the 2026 Indigenous-led Design Fellowship from Indigenous designers whose projects can enter into conversation with current CCA initiatives while holding relevance for their home communities or other communities with which they maintain long-standing ties.
The CCA Collection holds minimal material authored by Indigenous designers. The ambition of the fellowship is for Indigenous-led Design Fellows to probe this absence and to intervene in the Collection in ways that could be meaningful to their practices and communities. Dialogue between the fellows and the CCA will be at the core of this program. Broadly, the aim of the fellowship is to share knowledge on how architecture needs to be a critically and socially engaged practice.
Each year, two fellowships are awarded to designers—architects, urban planners, or individuals who self-identify as Indigenous and who work substantially with the built or natural environment. Their projects should help expand the scope and definition of Indigenous design. These projects should be rooted primarily in the needs and experiences of the designers’ own communities while also contributing to wider reorientations in design practice toward Indigenous-led approaches. The fellowship can support research, site documentation, and/or consultation processes related to active or speculative projects. We particularly welcome applicants in the emerging stages of their careers.
Topics of interest are broad and diverse, but all should support Indigenous communities and their experiences of the built environment. Fellowship projects may focus on advocacy and activism for equitable access to infrastructure—such as drinking water, broadband internet, or urban planning strategies that have reaffirmed colonial conditions—as well as on land-based knowledges tied to food sovereignty, climate futures, and Indigenous-defined notions of law, health, care, and cultural safety. Fellows can hold any nationality and identify with communities in any region of the world across urban, rural, settlement or reserve contexts.
The 2026 Indigenous-led Design Fellowship selection committee includes Tiffany Shaw (architect, Reimagine Architects), Whare Timu (architect, Warren and Mahoney’s Advanced Indigenous Design Unit – Te Matakīrea), and Desna Whaanga-Schollum (artist, co-founder of Ngā Aho Māori Designers’ Network). As Tiffany Shaw reflects, “Programs like this ensure the continuation of career pursuits for Indigenous professionals, allowing us to remain competitive and be valued across academic and professional practice, and in spaces that we desire to be held within.”
Each Fellow receives CAD 10,000 to support their project over four months. Following this period, fellows receive travel, accommodation, and per diem funding for a one-week residency at the CCA in July 2026 to engage with the Collection and CCA staff and fellows.
Past fellows include Tin Ayala, Ivana Molina Apaza and the El Alto Aesthetics Collective, Amina Mai Lalor, Shawn Bailey, Lauren A Wolfe, Naomi Ratte, and Jason Surkan.
Submissions are due January 12, 2026. Application guidelines are available here.
This program is generously supported by CCxA, KPMB, NORR, Lateral Office, Stantec, Drew Sinclair (SvN), and the CCA.
We also currently invite applications for the 2026–2027 Indigenous Land Restitution Research-Creation Fellowship welcoming Indigenous researchers and artists working on land restitution in relation to Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal. This Research-Creation Fellow collaborates with the Land Acknowledgement Working Group from January 2026 to January 2027 on a project addressing decolonization and land restitution, focusing on the history of the CCA site and its surroundings. Final outcomes may take oral, visual, or spatial forms—such as a children’s book exploring land, place, and history through a decolonial lens—and will be shared on the CCA website and through a public presentation. The project will also contribute to the CCA’s Living Lands initiative.
The Fellow will receive CAD 8,500, with travel and potential production costs covered within budget limits.
The inaugural Research-Creation Fellow, Ange Loft, created Visibly Iroquoian, followed by Iako’tsi:rareh Amanda Lickers, whose film Everlasting—an experimental blend of documentary and archival research—is presented at the CCA accompanied by an installation, through August 2026.
Submissions are due December 23, 2025. Application guidelines are available here.
Find out more about our research programs and the work of past fellows and research activities on our timeline. For more, and to learn about upcoming opportunities, subscribe here.
