Administration of money changed hands from federal government to Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. in 2023, and that’s when it stopped flowing: Manitok Thompson
The Inuit Broadcasting Corp. says its archive digitization project is at risk due to changes to the administration of federal Indigenous languages funding.
The non-profit organization has been working to digitize decades-old videotapes, all filmed by Inuit on a wide range of topics, for its Iqqaumavavut: We Remember Them project.
It has received approximately $1 million for its archival project since 2018 through the federal Indigenous Languages and Cultures program.
However, in 2023, the administration of approximately $9.7 million through the federal program moved to Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the legal representative for Inuit beneficiaries, to distribute for Inuktut protection, reclamation and revitalization projects.
It’s now been 19 months since the broadcasting corporation has received any substantial money for the project, said Manitok Thompson, executive director of the Inuit Broadcasting Corp.
She said she has had difficulty receiving any answers from NTI.
“Every time we asked them, we were told, ‘We’re working on it and we’ll let you know,’” she said.
“So then we’re waiting two fiscal years and no money is coming out of NTI.”
Some of the tapes the broadcasting corporation is working to digitize contain footage of elders sharing traditional knowledge and history, negotiations leading to the creation of Nunavut, and even a younger Gov. Gen. Mary Simon fighting for Inuit rights in Parliament.
Thompson said her 40-year-old non-profit organization is facing “a very serious situation” without the funding.
“If we don’t digitize [these tapes], we will lose them because after time they get brittle,” she said in an interview with Nunatsiaq News.
“We filmed it all, this is just a little glimpse of the archives. All the elders that were talking in these archives have passed on, and their great, great-grandchildren are now watching them.”
NTI has about $9.7 million to portion out for projects such as these over five years, starting from fiscal year 2023-24.
At the beginning of October, it issued a request for proposals for 2024-25 and any funded activities must be completed by March 31, 2025.
Thompson said the request for proposals is a year late and should instead be for 2025-26, to give organizations more time to work.
The broadcasting corporation’s archive digitization project has received bits of money here and there from the three regional Inuit associations, Library and Archives Canada, and other NTI funding pots, but Thompson said her organization needs approximately $500,000 for completion.
“We have to hire Inuit that know the language and dialects, staff for cataloguing, hire a company to get them digitized, activate our main server — it’s a big job,” she said.
This year, Thompson estimates her team has digitized about 20 per cent of the remaining tapes, which still need to be subtitled and translated.
“Other people have written about us, we have never written about ourselves,” said Thompson. “This is our story, our encyclopedia, we’re setting the record straight.”
NTI was asked but did not provide comment for this story.
