I think it's important to also recognize the difference between core funding and project funding in terms of being able to do that.
Two years ago, we undertook a project called “Through the Eyes of the Cree”, where we interviewed elders. It was part of a project that was funded by MAP, a wonderful project. In the course of that, we began to realize that the elders we had created a dialogue with were telling us about events surrounding 1885. It was the first time the first nations were telling their stories. We kept the cameras running and recorded those stories. We then tried to get funding for a project in order to get that information, but our elder died.
The elders are dying across this country. The keepers of the stories, who know what those artifacts are about, are not going to live forever. The urgency that we're talking about here isn't only because buildings are rotting and the artifacts are disappearing. It's because the keepers of those stories, the people who know the history, aren't going to be around forever. You and I know that in our own families.
It's the difference between project funding and operational funding. If we had core operational funding that would allow us to have curators do the jobs they're supposed to be doing, we wouldn't be losing those stories.