Listen, Hear Our Voices — Small projects

Who is eligible?

Primary applicants eligible for Listen, Hear Our Voices funding must be Indigenous nations (First Nations, Inuit, or Métis Nation), Indigenous governments, or Indigenous non-profit organizations. These include cultural centres, community organizations, historical societies, libraries or archives, museums, band councils, or departments within a nation’s Administration, as well as First Nation, Inuit, or Métis Nation government organizations. Organizations must be not-for-profit and provide proof of non-profit status. Both incorporated and non-incorporated organizations can apply, with non-incorporated organizations requiring a letter of reference from a recognized government or association. Organizations with outstanding reports from previously funded projects through LAC are ineligible. Business and for-profit Indigenous organizations cannot apply but can be hired for services. Secondary applicants can partner with primary applicants but businesses and for-profit Indigenous organizations cannot receive funding.

Who is not eligible

This grant focuses on supporting Indigenous non-profit and government organizations, excluding certain businesses from eligibility. The restrictions ensure that funds prioritize culturally significant projects related to Indigenous documentary heritage.

• Businesses and for-profit Indigenous organizations.
• Organizations, and their direct affiliates, with outstanding reports from previous LAC-funded projects.

Eligible expenses

This grant supports activities aimed at preserving Indigenous languages and cultures through digitization. Eligible projects focus on converting historical media to digital formats, skill-building in digitization, and improving resource availability within communities.

• Digitization of documentary heritage from formats like textual documents, photographs, audio cassettes, reel-to-reel, VHS tapes, and video cassettes.
• Preparing items for digitization.
• Creating an inventory of the collection.
• Prioritizing items in danger of being lost.
• Describing and organizing items in their digital or original formats.
• Developing a business case for a shared digital preservation system.
• Training staff on digitization and creating training materials.
• Developing and running training programs to help communities digitize their own collections.
• Buying or repairing digitization equipment.
• Purchasing software to digitize textual, photographic, or audiovisual materials.

Eligible geographic areas

The grant covers eligible expenses related to digitization projects, training, equipment, administration, and specific project management associated costs.

• Digitization by your organization, a partner, or a third-party.
• Consultants and professional services related to digitization.
• Purchase, rental, or repair of equipment or software to digitize and preserve material.
• Description, transcription, and development of finding aids for materials being digitized within the project.
• Shipping and insuring material.
• Salaries and wages to finish your project.
• Training and workshop activities.
• Travel for project staff (must follow the National Joint Council's Travel Directive).
• Honorariums and gifts of protocol to Indigenous Elders.
• General administration costs such as office supplies, long-distance telephone calls, postage, and messenger services.
• Project management fees (project budget and schedule oversight) cannot be more than 15% of funding you are requesting.
• Total general administration costs cannot be more than 20% of the funding amount, including the 15% limit on project management fees.

Here is an additional relevant detail for this grant:

• The review committee, composed of Indigenous people, considers both professional and personal perspectives during the assessment.