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

Digitizing the audio-visual collection ensures long-term care and sharing of significant cultural knowledge and voices, Tracey Drake, CEO of the Royal BC Museum, said in a press release.

The initiative will support digitising and preserving the language and cultural traditions of more than 200 British Columbian Indigenous communities and Nations through more than 28,000 photos, audio recordings and videos. This archive spans items dated 1890 to 1990, taken through provincial linguistic and anthropological research.

To date, only 20 per cent of the collection has been digitized. The Wesik Family Foundation donation will contribute to preserving the remaining 80 per cent of the collection.

To learn more about the collection, visit .