The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is now accepting applications for its Indigenous Youth Leadership program, Miistáki Iinníí’naa: Mountain Buffalo Warrior, which runs from October 4 to 9, 2026 in Banff, Alberta. The program welcomes Indigenous young adults aged 18 to 30, and the deadline to apply is August 18, 2026.
This overnight residential program offers a culturally grounded space to explore leadership through land-based learning, ceremony, and storytelling, guided by Elders and Knowledge Keepers. The total fee is $3,718 plus GST, covering registration, accommodation, meals, and tuition. Limited financial assistance is available for Indigenous participants, who must contribute at least 25 percent of the cost.
Faculty members include Elder Harley Crowshoe, a recipient of the Order of Canada and Honorary Chief of the Piikani Nation; Kluane Adamek, former Assembly of First Nations Yukon Regional Chief and citizen of Kluane First Nation; Daryl Kootenay, a traditional singer, dancer, and artist from Stoney Nakoda Nation; Megan Lewis, a queer mixed Kanien’kehá:ka woman and Director of the Centre for Indigenous Policy and Research at Indigenous Youth Roots; and Heather O’Watch, a Nakoda and Nehiyaw woman from Okanese First Nation and founder of Timpsina Society.
The program is built around three pillars: Land, Culture, and Community Leadership; a professional-development focus on skills, policy, and governance; and Personal and Collective Wellness. It uses the Seven Wise Practices model, which focuses on identity and culture, leadership, strategic vision and planning, governance and management, accountability and stewardship, performance evaluation, and collaborations, partnerships, and external relationships.
Simon Ross, Director of Indigenous Leadership at Banff Centre and a hereditary member of the Nlaka’pamux Nation, oversees the program. Banff Centre is located on Treaty 7 territory, the traditional lands of the Îyârhe Nakoda (Stoney Nakoda), the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Blackfoot Confederacy. The centre has offered Indigenous leadership programming for over 50 years, making it one of the longest-running initiatives of its kind in Canada.
