Recovering and illuminating indigenous documents that otherwise lie dormant in local communities can enable people to rediscover the wisdom of their local ancestors and encourage the development of a sense of local history that transcends conventional nation-centered historical views. Such efforts have the potential to provide us with a richer and more diverse sense of value.

Recent years have seen advances in digital information technology, the emergence of regional economies throughout Asia, and increasing regional integration. The Toyota Foundation hopes that by supporting efforts to preserve and utilize indigenous documents in a variety of ways, these grants will help the residents of communities where such documents are found to examine their own past and find emotional sustenance there, and that the content of these documents will spread well beyond their place of origin and be passed on to posterity as part of humanity's shared cultural inheritance.