Indigenous Knowledge & Intellectual Property: Negotiating the Spaces

Abstract

Indigenous knowledge is an integral part of Indigenous cultural heritage. Knowledge about land, seas, places and associated songs, stories, social practices, and oral traditions are important assets for Indigenous communities. Transmitted from generation to generation, Indigenous knowledge is constantly reinterpreted by Indigenous people. Through the existence and transmission of this intangible cultural heritage, Indigenous people are able to associate with a communal identity. The recording and fixing of Indigenous knowledge creates intellectual property (IP), rights of ownership to the material which the written or recorded in documents, sound recordings or films. Intellectual property rights allow the rights owners to control reproductions of the fixed form. IP laws are individual based and economic in nature. A concern for Indigenous people is that the ownership of the intellectual property which is generated from such processes, if often, not owned by them. The IP laws impact on the rights of traditional and Indigenous communities to their cultural heritage. This paper will explore the international developments, case studies, published protocols and policy initiatives concerning the recording, dissemination, digitisation, and commercial use of Indigenous knowledge.

Indigenous Research Methods to Build an Uncontested Space for Marketing Insight

“…This paper presents the Circular Indigenous Market Research (CIMR) approach for undertaking market research with Indigenous Australians. The approach is built on Indigenous knowledge and incorporates the "ways of being, knowing and doing" (Martin & Mirraboopa, 2003) as incorporates the key foundations of respect, relationships, and connections (Janke, 2021) to enable research that is respectful and collaborative. This approach incorporates and respects Indigenous methods and highlights the importance of stories, a non-directive way of collecting data, and the interpretation, understanding, and dissemination is undertaken with the researched community.…”

Biocultural Rights, Indigenous Peoples And Local Communities

“…Indigenous knowledge systems are often defined as including the idea that Indigenous peoples have relational obligations to each other and nature Pierotti & Wildcat, 2000;. Relational obligations derive from customary rules, laws, norms and protocols which act as governance arrangements over Indigenous knowledge (Christie, 2006;Janke, 2008;Mackay, 2009). In Australia, for example, customary law has figured in the high-profile copyright dispute through the Bulun Bulun & Anor v R & T Textiles Pty Ltd case (the Bulun Bulun case 7 ) over the reproduction of a waterhole design by John Bulun Bulun, a Ganalbingu man of Arnhem Land, which was printed in Indonesia and imported into Australia ( Janke, 2008;Mackay, 2009).…”

“…Relational obligations derive from customary rules, laws, norms and protocols which act as governance arrangements over Indigenous knowledge (Christie, 2006;Janke, 2008;Mackay, 2009). In Australia, for example, customary law has figured in the high-profile copyright dispute through the Bulun Bulun & Anor v R & T Textiles Pty Ltd case (the Bulun Bulun case 7 ) over the reproduction of a waterhole design by John Bulun Bulun, a Ganalbingu man of Arnhem Land, which was printed in Indonesia and imported into Australia ( Janke, 2008;Mackay, 2009). In this case, Judge Von Doussa found that a fiduciary relationship (one based on trust) existed between John Bulun Bulun and the Ganalbingu clan, and that customary laws influence what the artist can do with the work embodying the Indigenous knowledge "in a way that he had to discuss and negotiate use of traditional knowledge with relevant persons in authority within his clan" ( Janke, 2008, p. 19).…”