The Rematriation Project

Preserving Iñupiat Ilitqusiat: Digitizing Audiovisual Records of Northwest Alaskan Iñupiat Knowledge Bearers’ Voices & Values, 1970s-2010s

Granting Organization: Council on Library and Information Resources

Grant Name: Recordings At Risk (Cycle 13)

Organization Type: Nonprofit Organization

Award: $32,877

Fiscal Year: 2026-2027

Link: clir.org/recordings-at-risk/funded-projects/

Granting Organization: The Council on Library and Information Resources is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning.

Aims: Aqqaluk Trust (AT) will digitize, steward, and make available an estimated 520 hours of audiovisual recordings of Inupiat between the 1970s through the 2010s. These audiovisual recordings document knowledge bearers speaking in their endangered language of Iñupiaq, traditional practices, and knowledges about their homeland and changes of it over time. This grant will digitize and preserve a collection currently held by AT by working with their longstanding multi-institutional team, The Rematriation Project (REMA), to inventory and create a Wikibase instance of the initial collection metadata for public access, and Bay Area Video Coalition Media for digitization. These deliverables will seed further impacts in preserving collections at risk, including a sharable educational model to develop and increase local capacities for sustainable access and preservation of digitized audiovisual materials.

MYSTERY in the Archives: Developing Community Archiving Capacities in Northwest Alaska

Granting Organization: Institute of Museum and Library Services

Grant Name: Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program

Organization Type: U.S. Federal Government

Award: $247,362

Fiscal Year: 2025-2026

Link: www.imls.gov/grants/awarded/re-259004-ols-25-1

Granting Organization: The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's libraries and museums. They advance, support, and empower America's museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. IMLS envisions a nation where individuals and communities have access to museums and libraries to learn from and be inspired by the trusted information, ideas, and stories they contain about our diverse natural and cultural heritage.

Aims: We used this funding to design and test a two-week workshop that centers capacity-building for integral community members invested in archival interventions with their local goals to preserve, organize, and share their knowledge and data. During the training, community members learned how to organize and inventory archival materials, digitize photos and recordings, create descriptions so others can find and understand those materials, and upload items into an online community archive. To make this learning experience memorable, meaningful, materially supportive, and fun, we've designed this training as a “cold case” mystery investigation, recruited integral educational and resourceful community members from each village, paying them for their time and creativity, and partnered with the University of Alaska-Fairbanks to provide Continuing Education Credits for eligible participants.

Northlight Foundation

Organization Type: Private Foundation

NorthLight Foundation is a private foundation established by Dan and Sheryl Tishman. They invest at the intersection of human and environmental landscapes and work with organizations to deliver high impact and systemic change. Their work focuses on building power across diverse communities to lead on environmental protection, with a focus on climate and land conservation. They fund through a lens of environmental justice.

Ocean Conservancy

Organization Type: 501(c)3 Organization

Ocean Conservancy is a nonprofit conservation organization working toward a healthier ocean, protected by a more just world. They create evidence-based solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. Information about their people and work is available at their website noted above.

Trust for Mutual Understanding

Organization Type: Private, Grant-Making Organization

The Trust for Mutual Understanding (TMU) awards grants to American nonprofit organizations to support direct exchange in the arts and the environment (and the intersection of the two) between professionals.

Wilburforce Foundation

Organization Type: Private Foundation

The Wilburforce Foundation empowers conservation leaders to protect the irreplaceable lands, waters, and wildlife of western North America.