Grants and Contributions

In 2021, PI/KHS received a donation of 276 Inuinnaqtun/Inuktitut recordings by George Diveky from 1973-77 during time spent teaching in the Arctic communities of Kugaaruk and Kugluktuk. George envisioned the recording project as a platform for documenting the region's rapidly vanishing language and oral history. The recordings contain a variety of Inuit recollections and stories, and rare retelling of the pan-Inuit mythological pantheon in the Inuinnaqtun language and from an Inuinnait regional perspective. It also includes rare first-hand Inuit accounts of encounters with early Arctic explorers, including Rasmussen's Fifth Thule Expedition (1923).
The main goal of this project is to make the important language and cultural content of these recordings accessible to Inuit across the Arctic; ensure long-term storage, preservation, and accessibility of Inuinnaqtun and Inuinnait culture; advance knowledge and understanding of Inuinnait history, language, traditions and culture through accessibility; increase the number of primary Inuinnaqtun sources available for language learners to consult Inuinnaqtun terminology and listen to correct pronunciations; support digital oral histories and songs to be shareable and accessible to the public.

Splatsin has a vast holdings of archive material that includes genealogical records, pictures, historical records, census, maps, artifacts, DVD collection of oral history, and audio recordings that have been gathered since the 1970's. It is our desire to create a physical and digital archives that our community members and staff can access to strengthen awareness and understanding of our history and culture. The collection is approximately 500 CD/DVD's, 200 maps, 300 photos and 120 boxes of written information

The project will ensure the preservation of ninety WW1 Mi'kmaq Veterans's collected by Dr. Julien, Mi’kmaq historian and researcher. The collection includes he First Nations community of which the Veteran is registered; family information (immediate and extended); personal accomplishments: obituaries; burial site locations.

Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC) RC had its deposited holdings returned from the Northwest Territories Archives. This material is on mediums such as cassette tapes, VHS, reel to reel and DAT tapes with no digital longer-lasting format available. The older mediums will be digitized and added to our database and accessioned into our physical collection.

Given the date range of the material (1963 to 1979) and difficulty sharing the content including stories and conversations by those who are now elders and/deceased Inuvialuit beneficiaries, it is in our interest to preserve the content through digitization and training to make the material available to our beneficiaries and communities for learning purposes.

Since 1984, the Waskaganish Sibi Ayimuweyabi (WSA) have been conducting interviews with community members, leaders, youth and elders. For this project, it is our mission to go through all the tapes we have in storage and to digitize cultural and traditional content to broadcast to our community. We will also give access to this content whether stored on hard drive (computer) at our office or even access on our website (which is now being built) to our community members and abroad. The content will be 100% Cree language. The main goal is to digitize, edit, and archive 684 Hours of reel-to-reel tape that we have in storage since the early 80's.

The Saskatchewan Indigenous Cultural Centre extensive archive and donated collection consists of documents, photographs, periodicals, newspaper clippings, audio recordings and video recordings that hold important local historical and cultural value for Saskatchewan First Nations including invaluable oral history from Elders gatherings and interviews, recordings of Indigenous languages, songs and music, and significant local history in recordings of assemblies. The main goal of this project is digitization of 1000 audio cassette tapes, improved discoverability and access of the collection through the creation of a finding aid and application of descriptive metadata; training of three staff members.

Our project will include housing and labeling the slides, as well as creating a complete catalogue description on the database for preservation and access to the images, providing digitization workshops and a social media campaign to promote digitizing services and promotion on the Cree community radio station.

Each component of Phase 3 will have their own funding programs, and the project will digitize and upload, and describe pre-identified language and cultural resources across these different sources so that we can meet our goal to facilitate community access to these resources.

The vision of "Taking Care of Our History Bundle” originates from sacred bundles which has its roots in the Anishinaabe culture going back thousands of years. The bundle is a sacred item that requires great care and respect in the caring of the bundle and its items holds records of our history encompassing rituals with instructions written on sacred scrolls. Individuals within our community are given the responsibility to care for the bundle for generations and to pass the bundle onto other individuals to ensure this process continues.
“Taking Care of Our History Bundle” carries on that tradition. Over the last fifty years the Treaty Aboriginal Rights Research (T.A.R.R) has generated collections of records, such as maps, videos, audio recordings, photographs, oral histories statements by community members and copies of RG10 files. The impact of this project has a far-reaching cultural significance that creates a historic textual picture that brings the past into the now. The Bundle will bring together people who are in the pursuit of putting together the missing spirit in the ever-growing historical resurgence happening across turtle island."

Kitsumkalum’s Digitization & Migration Project will involve the digitization and migration of Kitsumkalum’s collection into the Community Knowledge Keeper (CKK), creating a comprehensive digital resource that Kitsumkalum staff and decision-makers can easily access. The Project will increase Kitsumkalum’s capacity to preserve and digitize their own collection to provide a legacy of cultural knowledge, archival information, and oral history and create a foundation for future research and information sharing, such as the development of an online exhibit showcasing Kitsumkalum’s rich history and cultural heritage.