The Royal BC Museum and Archives is prioritizing materials with Indigenous content for digitization. The focus is on digitizing linguistic tapes in order to support language revitalization programs within communities. Additionally, the museum’s collection of more than 25,000 photographs, mostly early images of communities, will be scanned as part of a multi-year digitization project.

The BC Archives is reviewing their descriptive standards and consulting both internally and externally to create a plan to incorporate traditional knowledge, cultural restrictions and Indigenous language diacritics into archives catalogue entries.

In 2017 the Royal BC Museum and Archives was gifted with translations of three of the original Vancouver Island Treaties. Two of the treaties were translated into Lekwungen and one into SENĆOŦEN. These translations are available online and provided whenever researchers ask to view the English-language versions, encouraging users to consider the different versions and languages involved at their time of creation.

The Learning Portal is a digital tool for learners of all ages. The Our Living Languages pathway offers a new understanding of the diverse languages of First Nations communities in British Columbia.

The BC Archives includes a number of guides to assist researchers studying particular subject areas. An online reference guide dedicated to helping those researching the history of Residential Schools in British Columbia is in development.

The Indian Residential Schools Program, which ran from roughly 1880 to 1996, is a tragedy in Canadian history. This Learning Portal pathway is about those residential schools that were established by the Canadian government specifically for Indigenous children.

The Royal BC Museum offers a wide variety of school programs aimed at increasing awareness of First Nations, Metis and Inuit cultures and histories. These programs include the EAGLE Program, Learning Labs, Partner School Project and the Home Learners Workshop series.

The Royal BC Museum offers a wide variety of public programs aimed at increasing awareness of First Nations, Metis and Inuit cultures and histories. These programs include the Performance as Medicine, Have We Got a Story to Tell, Haida Storytelling, Wonder Sunday, It's Complicated, Indigenous Film Showcase and Museum Happy Hour: Indi-genius. 

The BC Archives regularly assists Indigenous communities with researching their genealogy and community history. This collaborative documentary highlights the challenges and the joys of conducting such research as Dr. Evan Adams of the First Nations Health Authority uncovers his personal story.

This year, BC Archives staff began to visit and seek advice from Indigenous communities and cultural associations across the province. Topics discussed were: how to access records at the archives and the ways in which Indigenous materials are represented and accessed.

Curious is an online publication that collects essays, research, archival items and photography from Royal BC Museum curators, archivists and other experts. In the spring 2017 Belongings issue, First Nations community members explored themes of belonging, self-discovery and community, with a focus on the Royal BC Museum and Archives collections.

The First Nations Advisory and Advocacy Committee is a key stakeholder group in the museum’s new Research Portal and will be interviewed during the discovery phase, prior to development.

The initiative to document Punjabi Canadian community history through oral accounts explores connections with First Nations, to promote understanding of lived experiences and intercultural connections.

The Royal BC Museum is a member of the LEO (Local Environmental Observations) network that uses citizen science to track changes to the environment. The LEO Network is funded by the BC First Nations Health Authority.

In October 2017 the Royal BC Museum co-led a public walk with an elder from the Cowichan Tribes. This walk highlighted the way that the Cowichan First Nations and their ancestors have and continue to live within the ecologically and culturally rich area.

The Gathering Our Voices Indigenous youth training conference in Richmond, BC brought together more than 1,000 Indigenous youth delegates as well as chaperones, presenters and guests. Young people from all across Canada were invited to explore, learn and engage with Indigenous culture while surrounded by their peers. The Royal BC Museum and Archives hosted an information table.

The Royal BC Museum publication, Kwädąy Dän Ts’ìnchį: Teachings from Long Ago Person Found, was the result of collaboration between First Nations and research institutions across the globe, including the Royal BC Museum. With one of its volume editors and multiple chapter authors from First Nations communities, it brought scientific analysis and cultural knowledge together in new and complementary ways, demonstrating true cooperation that benefits all involved.

The BC Archives is working to provide digital copies of records to Indigenous families and communities that have a connection to the material. A recent example includes an 1887 government file that describes early settler-Indigenous conflict in the East Kootenays in detail. The scanned file has been provided to the Ktunaxa Nation Council.

On March 27, 2018 two collections from the Royal BC Museum—the Vancouver Island Treaties and the Ida Halpern fonds—were accepted for inscription on the Canadian Commission for UNESCO's Canada Memory of the World register. Highly valued by Indigenous communities, inscription on the register is recognition of the significance of these records.

Respectful field practices have been introduced by Royal BC Museum scientists. Local First Nations are now contacted before summer collecting trips are planned in their territories and museum scientists offer to collect duplicate samples that can be deposited with communities who have an interest in developing natural history collections. To date, duplicate collections of botanical material have been donated to the Kelly Lake First Nation and to the Treaty 8 Tribal Association.

Updates to the Royal BC Museum Natural History gallery will begin in 2018. Included in the refresh will be changes to the metanarrative and specimen labels to introduce Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as an important source of environmental information.

A three year plan has been launched to begin a major renewal and re-evaluation of all First Peoples gallery displays. This includes an updated interpretive plan and major design changes to represent contemporary living First Nations. All work is being completed in direct consultation with the First Nations Advisory and Advocacy Committee.

Indigenous partners were consulted in the planning of the Becoming BC gallery refresh (2018–21). These partners will introduce Indigenous and intercultural voices as an integral part of BC's historical narratives. 

The Royal BC Museum frequently loans out cultural heritage to community members on request, as with a Chilkat Robe (RBCM 14768) that was loaned to family members for graduation ceremonies in 2015 and 2017. Museum conservators learned to perceive the robe as part of a living culture, recognize that it has value as a ceremonial object, and demonstrated positive caretaking practices for the preservation of cultural heritage.

The Royal BC Museum's Conservation department provides meaningful access to collections to artists who need to view a particular object (e.g. Haida Canoe). The detailed view of the materials and structure of objects is shared with the people who derive the most benefit from close examination of the object.

The Royal BC Museum and Archives has established a program to provide Indigenous communities and individuals with reproductions of records documenting their cultural heritage free-of-charge. Researchers who self-identify as Indigenous can access copies of photographs, textual records, sound recordings and other items from the collections.

The Royal BC Museum's Conservation department participates in repatriation requests, including the November 2016 transfer of a number of wooden carvings and baskets to the Huu-ay-aht First Nation. Practical assistance with cleaning, packing and transporting was supplied at the request of the First Nation. Cooperation and partnership takes place in facilitating the return of objects to the community.