The Aboriginal Healing Foundation was established in 1998 as an Indigenous managed, non-profit corporation dedicated to responding to the legacy of residential schools in Canada and the associated community health impacts.

[3] The Foundation was initially provided with $350 million of funding from the Canadian government to carry out this work with residential school survivors and Indigenous communities across Canada.

[2] The Foundation was designed as an organization to be responsible for the management of the Canada government's healing strategy related to residential schools.

[6] The original board of directors was composed of 17 people, including Garnet Angeconeb, Charlene Belleau, Jerome Berthelette, Paul Chartrand, Angus Cockney, Ken Courchene, Wendy John, Richard Kistabish, Cerrielynn Lamouche, Ann Meekitjuk-Hanson, Teressa Nahanee, Dorris Peters, Viola Robinson, Grant Severight, Cindy Swanson, and Charles Weaselhead.

[7] The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement of 2007 resulted in an additional $125 million of funding for the Healing Foundation and a prolonged mandate for the organization.

[9] There has been debate about the Church's obligations to pay this amount and in 2013 the Canadian government pursued legal action for $1.6 million that the Catholic entities had not paid the Foundation.

[13][14] Following the closure of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation its research library, records, and archives were donated to the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre at Algoma University.