Image: "Aboriginal Embassy," an Aboriginal protest site in Canberra, Australia.
Photo by Michael F. Brown, 1998.
A list of book-length works focusing on indigenous IPR and sacred sites, based on pp. 299-301 of Who Owns Native Culture?.
Draft UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. (Available in multiple sites.)
Karen M. Strom and others have developed the informative website A Line in the Sand, which emphasizes indigenous cultural/intellectual property
Indian Law Resource Center's Proposed American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
The Australian report, Our Culture: Our Future, arguably the most comprehensive consideration of the legal status of indigenous intellectual property, is available full-text online as well as in a published version. This is required reading for anyone interested in these questions. [6-2004 NOTE: Report back on line.]
Joseph Wambugu Githaiga's article "Intellectual Property Law and the Protection of Indigenous Folkore and Knowledge," Australia
Essay by the legal scholar Sarah Harding,"Justifying Repatriation of Native American Cultural Property,"1997, available full-text (html)
Jessica Scott Jerome's annotated bibliography, "Intellectual Property Rights & Indigenous Peoples, available full-text (pdf)
Paper by the Maori barrister Maui Solomon,"Intellectual Property Rights and Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Obligations," 2000, available full-text (html)
Website of Project for the Protection & Repatriation of First Nation Cultural Heritage in Canada. Site includes project description, useful information on relevant legislation, and bibliographic material.
Essay by Jonathan Blavin (Harvard Law School), "Folklore in Africa," 2003, available full-text (html). Considers IPR status of folkloric productions in Africa.
UNESCO's Draft International Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2003, available in full-text (.pdf) format..
Essay by legal scholar Rosemary J. Coombe, "Intellectual Property, Human Rights and Sovereignty: New Dilemmas in International Law Posed by the Recognition of Indigenous Knowledge and the Conservation of Biodiversity," 1998, available full-text (pdf)
Report, Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, "Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy, London, 2002. (Long report available as downloadable pdf, MSWord, or html chapters.)
Article by the legal scholar Paul Kuruk, "Protecting Folklore Under Modern Intellectual Property Regimes: A Reappraisal of the Tensions between Individual and Communal Rights in Africa and the United States, American University Law Review, 1999, available full-text (pdf).
Article by Tiffany Jenkins on the impact of new policies regarding bones and other human tissues held by museums, with special reference to the UK. From spiked-online.com, a London-based publication.
Website of PIIPA (Public Interest Intellectual Property Advisors, Inc.), "an international non-profit organization that makes intellectual property counsel available for developing countries and public interest organizations who seek to promote health, agriculture, biodiversity, science, culture, and the environment."
Important essay now available online: Rosemary J. Coombe, "Fear, Hope, and Longing for the Future of Authorship and a Revitalized Public Domain in Global Regimes of Intellectual Property," originally published in the DePaul Law Review, Summer 2003 (pdf).
Repatriation and Cultural Property Rights, a website with information and useful links maintained in Australia.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has recently posted an important study by Terri Janke, Minding Culture: Case Studies in Intellectual Property and Traditional Cultural Expression, 2003 (a large pdf file).
dot "Owning Culture," a short essay on anthropology and indigenous IPR by Michael F. Brown, published in the April 2004 issue of Anthropology News, a monthly publication of the American Anthropological Association (html). Posted here 22 November 2004.