Grants and Contributions

This project, an Anishinabe cultural initiative, will build upon an existing foundation through digitizing Indigenous language texts, historical photographs, and additional cassette recordings to add to the archive. This includes cataloguing and digitizing roughly 20 journals of an important now-deceased Elder, written in the Cree syllabic writing system, as well as 200 photographs, and 50 cassettes containing traditional Oji-Cree songs and hymns.

Another major component involves adding detailed descriptions to the records in the archive, primarily by transcribing Oji-Cree audio recordings and providing a translation of the contents.

The Inuvialuit Traditional Knowledge Inventory Development (ITK ID) project aims to establish an ITK inventory and online repository by identifying all the ITK archival materials in possession of the Joint Secretariat and its partners, and by organizing the data within a formal inventory model best suited for inventory development knowledge archival materials.

Frog Lake Library (FLL) will digitize, describe, and connect a wide range of materials, including photos, images, video and audio recordings, and newspapers, that collectively document the history of Frog Lake First Nations (FLFNs) lands and people. The FLL’s archives and history will be featured through the FLFNs website and app, with a catalogued physical collection of conserved originals and copies available for public access.

Between 1990 and 2000, the Inuvialuit Social Development Program conducted three major oral history projects about Inuvialuit use and traditional knowledge of the Yukon North Slope (including Herschel Island), and Banks Island in the Northwest Territories. Elders were transported back by boat and helicopter to their former camps to be interviewed. The projects resulted in 223 audio recordings, which were transcribed in Inuvialuktun and translated into English—an essential effort since few Inuvialuit were fluent in Inuvialuktun. While half of those recordings are accessible on the Inuvialuit Digital Library website, the other half are missing, along with the video Ikaahuk (produced in Inuvialuktun with English subtitles).

The Inuvialuktun transcriptions, English translations of all tapes, and indexes of the English translations are not available on the website due to problems converting files from the 1994 Word program. Once their layout is finalized and the missing Inuvialuktun letters are added to each page, the documents will be converted into PDF format. These digitized versions will then be uploaded to the Inuvialuit Digital Library website. The same will be done with the digitized tapes and video so that all the material from the 1990s Inuvialuit oral history projects is available online.

Throwback to the 2000s: Modern Impressions and Transferable Knowledge is a project dedicated to arranging and describing heritage recordings from the early 2000s while advancing shared digital preservation strategies with other Indigenous organizations.

The videos are from the oldest format in StrongFront's collection of MiniDV tapes. Between 2000 and 2006, there are over 760 tapes, totalling approximately 507 hours of footage (40 minutes per tape). From 2006 to 2012, technology improved and there are approximately 560 MiniHDV tapes, with a combined runtime of 560 hours (60 minutes per tape).

This project will train a young technical Heiltsuk person as a digitization technician, equipping them with the skills to handle specialized equipment and software, and to implement a spreadsheet to manage the metadata to digitize recordings.

The project involves procuring equipment to digitize formats such as open-reel audio, MiniDV, and Digital8. Additionally, digitization procedures specific to the equipment and policies of the Heiltsuk Cultural Education Centre (HCEC) will be established. The digitization and processing efforts will prioritize recordings that have been identified as significant to families or community programs.

The key activity of the Alkw Media Society is to administer Nuxalk Radio with the mandate of promoting Indigenous language use and fluency, contributing positively to physical, mental, spiritual and emotional well-being, and providing information regarding Indigenous identity, history and culture. This project involves creating a digital library system to catalogue and store digitized items for Nuxalk community access, digitizing an estimated 100 hours of audio materials and texts and transcribing and broadcasting the materials over Nuxalk Radio.

The United Chiefs and Councils of Mnidoo Mnsing (UCCMM) Digital Archives project is a reconciliation of existing digital and physical archives at the UCCMM Tribal Council into a searchable database.

University nuxelhot’ine thaa?ehots’i nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills (UnBQ) is establishing a community archive infrastructure for the storage of physical analog and digital audio, visual and textual materials that have linguistic, cultural and/or historic value to our communities. This project will digitize audio, video and textual materials; translate recordings and textual materials; archive and processing born-digital and digitized materials; provide archival and digitization training.

Hear our Voices: A Digital Library of photographs of Cowessess First Nation is a compilation of historical photos, events, and documents.
Cowessess have many photos of community members that attended Marieval Residential School. These photos were showcased for the first time at Cowessess on September 30, 2021, the first national holiday to commemorate National Truth and Reconciliation Day. These photos have not been digitized. Our primary goal is to preserve this history for future generations to embrace."