Listen, Hear Our Voices — Small projects

Eligibility criteria for the Listen, Hear Our Voices grant apply to organizations involved with Indigenous documentary heritage efforts.

• Applicant must be an Indigenous nation (First Nations, Inuit or Métis Nation), Indigenous government, or Indigenous non-profit organization.
• Examples of eligible organizations include cultural centres, community organizations, historical societies, libraries or archives, museums, and band councils or departments within a nation’s Administration.
• Organizations must be not-for-profit and provide proof of their non-profit status unless they are band councils or Indigenous government departments, which are assumed to be not-for-profit.
• Both incorporated and non-incorporated organizations can apply; however, incorporated organizations need to provide proof of incorporation.
• Non-incorporated organizations need a letter of reference from a recognized government or association and are encouraged to collaborate with an incorporated organization for large project funding.
• Organizations with outstanding reports from previously funded projects by LAC are ineligible.

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.

The evaluation and selection of projects for the Listen, Hear Our Voices grant are based on criteria aimed at ensuring the effective digitization and preservation of Indigenous documentary heritage.

• Project feasibility and approach.
• Urgency of the work due to the condition of the collection.
• Benefits of the project for the applicant organization, partner organizations, communities, researchers, and Canadians.

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.