Two residencies have been set up at the Banff Centre in Canada for a Maori dancer and a writer to study indigenous art.
Each year, more than 8000 people go to the centre, which commissions, supports and produces new works.
It's reserving spots for a Maori artist to take up the indigenous dance and writing residency programmes, funded by Creative New Zealand.
Maori funding manager Haniko Te Kurapa says the centre has sought a formal arrangement because of the similarities between Maori and First Nation Canadians, including treaties, the confiscation of land and the state of language.
He says dancers and writers are able to draw emotions from those similarities and inject that into their art.
