First Peoples' Heritage, Language, and Culture Council

First Peoples' Heritage, Language, and Cultural Council
The First Peoples’ Heritage, Language and Culture Council (The First Peoples' Council) is a First Nations governed Crown Corporation of the province of British Columbia, Canada. It is based in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia. The First Peoples' Council has been offering services and programs to support First Nations' language, arts, and culture revitalization in British Columbia since it was established in 1990 through the First Peoples' Heritage, Language and Culture Act. Base funding for the First Peoples' Council is provided through the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation and further funds are raised through partnerships with public and private agencies (including the New Relationship Trust, the BC Arts Council and the Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development).

The mandate of the organization is to: Provide funding to First Nations cultural and language programs; support and advise government and First Nations leadership on initiatives, programs and services related to First Nations arts, language and culture; provide services and resources to help revitalize the cultural legacy of First Nations people; advocate for First Nations heritage and culture.

The First Peoples' Council is the founder of the FirstVoices online language project. In 2010 they produced the Report on the Status of B.C. First Nations Languages. They have also produced the First Peoples' Language Map of British Columbia, provide language toolkits for indigenous language activists, as well as indigenous language keyboard layouts via FirstVoices.

The First Peoples' Heritage, Language, and Cultural Council is a member of the Alliance for Linguistic Diversity, and took over the hosting of the Endangered Languages Project from Google in late 2012, in cooperation with the Institute for Language Information and Technology and the Alliance for Linguistic Diversity's Advisory Committee.

Links for the First Peoples' Council
First Peoples' Council website