Dominion Diamond stops funding Lutselk'e archiving project

A project aimed at creating a database of traditional knowledge gathered from elders in Lutselk'e, N.W.T., is now absent its main funder after Dominion Diamond declined to provide a second round of funding.

In a Nov. 10 letter to the Lutselk'e Dene First Nation, Dominion Diamond Corporation confirmed it has declined to provide more funding in the amount of $148,000.

Dominion and BHP Billiton, which owned the majority of the Ekati diamond mine before Dominion took over last year, have already provided a total of $326,998 for the project.

But the band says it needs more money to complete the project's final phase: storing around 15,000 digitized files (collected over several years from VHS tapes, CDs and film strips) in an easy-to-browse computer program run off of a local server. The material would then be made available to schoolchildren and residents, and perhaps incorporated into the curriculum at Lutselk'e Dene School.

We had real high hopes for BHP and Dominion to keep this project going.- Mike Tollis

Mike Tollis, the manager of wildlife, lands and environment for the band, says Dominion Diamond initially expressed interest in providing more funding, but ultimately changed course, to the band's surprise and disappointment.

"We had real high hopes for BHP and for Dominion to keep this project going," says Tollis.

"The direction that I've been thinking about taking our funding is to try to make it a legacy project for one of the mining companies. They're always talking about having a flagship project that they can put their name on and see something long-term from in the community." 

Dominion Diamond has declined to comment but in its letter, the company says it has previously urged the band to seek alternative sources of funding, and continues to do so.

The federal Department of Heritage provided the project with $100,000 in funding last year and Diavik Diamond Mines Inc. has contributed an undisclosed sum.

However, Tollis said Dominion/BHP was the project's regular funder and without the second round of funding, the program's launch will likely be delayed.