Multiple federal funding streams support Indigenous Traditional Knowledge studies and the creation of Indigenous archives, but funding is distributed through competitive grant programs and time-limited initiatives rather than as predictable base funding to Indigenous communities. Budget 2024 committed $30 million ($10 million each for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit researchers and research partners) to support Indigenous participation in research, delivered through new tri-agency funding opportunities including the Indigenous Innovation and Leadership in Research Network Grants and the Indigenous Capacity and Leadership in Research Connection Grants. The tri-agency Setting New Directions to Support Indigenous Research and Research Training in Canada strategic plan, co-developed with Indigenous communities through national dialogue, provides the federal research-funding policy framework.
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) administers the Listen, Hear Our Voices initiative, which allocated $912,963 in 2024-2025 to support 14 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis organizations in digitizing and preserving cultural and language materials. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), housed at the University of Manitoba, holds more than 4 million records and received $2.33 million from CIRNAC in 2024-2025 to advance the National Indian Residential School Student Death Register and the National Indian Residential School Online Cemeteries and Burial Sites Register (TRC Calls to Action 72 and 73). Sectoral funds, including the Natural Resources Canada Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund Indigenous Grants ($3 million for the 2025 call, with up to $200,000 per organization for Traditional Knowledge gathering and sharing) and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Indigenous and Stakeholder Capacity Fund, support Traditional Knowledge documentation in resource-development and regulatory contexts.