Royal BC Museum receives landmark donation towards digitizing Indigenous AV collections for future generations

VICTORIA, BC — The Royal BC Museum has received a landmark $250,000 donation towards the Indigenous Audio-Visual Collection Digitization Project from the Wesik Family Foundation.

“This generous donation from the Wesik Family Foundation will support the digitization and preservation of language and cultural traditions of more than 200 Indigenous communities and nations located throughout British Columbia.” says Tracey Drake, CEO, the Royal BC Museum. “Digitizing the audio-visual collection ensures long-term care and sharing of significant cultural knowledge and voices. We are extremely grateful to the Wesik Family Foundation for their financial support to advance this important work.”

The Indigenous Audi-Visual Collection consists of more than 28,000 individual photos, audio recordings and moving images (videos) taken across British Columbia from 1890 to 1990 through provincial linguistic and anthropological research. Currently, only 20 per cent of the collection has been digitized and the Wesik Family Foundation donation will contribute to preserving the remaining 80 per cent of the collection. The project will also facilitate the transferring of cultural knowledge back to the nations and Indigenous communities.

Donations help to fund vital provincial museum programs and services. To learn more about how you can support Royal BC Museum research, learning, exhibitions, community programming and collection care, visit rbcmfoundation.ca/waystogive.