Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage: A Global Challenge
Price: $ 36.00
 
 Marie Battiste and James (Sákéj) Youngblood Henderson
336 pages, index, bibliography, paper; 6 x 9, spring, 2000
ISBN 1-895830-15-X / ISBN13 978-1895830-156
Indigenous peoples have the right to practice and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs ... as well as ... the restitution of cultural, intellectual, religious and spiritual property taken without their free and informed consent or in violation of their laws, traditions and customs.
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations
Table of Contents
Part I
The Lodge of Indigenous Knowledge in Modern Thought
1: Eurocentrism and the European Ethnographic Tradition
Assumptions About the Natural World
Assumptions About Human Nature
Assumptive Quandaries
The Ethnographic Tradition
2: What is Indigenous Knowledge?
Decolonizing the Eurocentric Need for Definitions
Entering Uncharted Territory
Locating Indigenous Knowledge
Traditional Ecological Knowledge
The Transmission of Indigenous Knowledge
Part II
Towards an Understanding of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to Their Knowledge and Heritage
3: The Concept of Indigenous Heritage Rights
International Definition of Indigenous
Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage
Sacred Ecologies and Legal Corollaries
Interconnected Rights
Indigenous Knowledge as Intellectual Property
Indigenous Legal Systems
4: The Importance of Language for Indigenous Knowledge
Indigenous Languages and the Natural World
The Eurocentric Illusion of Benign Translatability
Consequences of the Eurocentric Illusion
5: Decolonizing Cognitive Imperialism in Education
The School System
Cognitive Clashes
Decolonizing the System
Educational Contexts
6: Religious Paradoxes
Divine Order and Secular Law
Correcting False Translations
Freedom from Missionaries
Sacred Healing Sites
Tourism, Vandalism, and Problems of Privacy
Right to Harvest and Use Ceremonial Materials in Religious Practices
Indigenous Burial Grounds
Return and Reburial of Ancesters' Remains and Artifacts
7: Paradigmatic Thought in Eurocentric Science
Medical Research and "Biopiracy"
Genetic Diversity in Agricultural Biotechnology
8: Ethical Issues in Research
Eliminating the Eurocentric Bias in Research
RCAP Ethical Guidelines for Research in Canada
Canadian Research Councils Policy Statement of Ethical Conduct on Research on Human Subjects
Breaches of Confidentiality of Sacred Knowledge
Community Control of Research
Professional Organizations and Ethics
9: Indigenous Heritage and Eurocentric Intellectual and Cultural Property Rights
Culture Versus Nature
Recovery of Sacred and Ceremonial Objects
Authenticity
Communal Rights to Traditional Designs in Modern Artworks
Cultural Appropriation
Exhibitions
Issues in the Performing Arts
Advertising Use of Indigenous Peoples and Arts
Part III
Exising Legal Régimes and Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage
10: The International Intellectual and Cultural Property Régime
UN Human Rights Conventions and Covenants
The International Intellectual Property Régime
Technology, "Know-how", and Trade Secrets
International Trade and Aid Measures
Protection of Folklore
Special International Instruments Concerned with Indigenous Peoples
11: The Canadian Constitutional Régime
Interpreting the Constitution of Canada
Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage as an Aboriginal Right
12: The Canadian Legislative Régime
Federal Cultural Property Law
Federal Intellectual Property Law
Federal Common Law
Provincial Law
Part IV
The Need for Legal and Policy Reforms to Protect Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage
13: Rethinking Intellectual and Cultural Property
Moral Rights
Personality or Publicity Rights
Patents, Trademarks, and Passing Off
The Commodification of Culture
14: Current International Reforms
United Nations Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples (1995-2004)
Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (1994)
Protecting Traditional Ecological Knowledge
15: Enhancing Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage in National Law
National Protection Strategies
Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits
The Importance of Indigenous Use and Management of Ecosystems
Present Status of Ecologically Related Knowledge
Effective Protection of Knowledge and Practices
16: Canadian Policy Considerations
National Protection Strategies
Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples
Operational Principles
Canadian Reforms
International Reforms
Part V
Conclusion
Conclusion
Acronyms
References
Acts, Regulations, and Guidelines
Legal Cases
Index
Whether the approximately 500 million Indigenous Peoples in the world live in Canada, the United States, Australia, India, Peru, or Russia, they have faced a similar fate at the hands of colonizing powers. That has included assaults on their language and culture, commercialization of their art, and use of their plant knowledge in the development of medicine, all without consent, acknowledgement, or benefit to them.
The authors paint a passionate picture of the devastation these assaults have wrought on Indigenous peoples. They illustrate why current legal regimes are inadequate to protect Indigenous knowledge and put forward ideas for reform. This book looks at the issues from an international perspective and explores developments in various countries including Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and also at the work of the United Nations and all relevant international agreements.
Dr. Marie Battiste is a Mi’kmaq from Unama’kik (Cape Brenton, Nova Scotia), and a graduate of Harvard and Stanford. She is a professor in the Department of Educational Foundations, and Academic Director or the Aboriginal Education Research Centre, both at the University of Saskatchewan, and a United Nations technical expert on the guidelines for protecting Indigenous heritage. She is the editor of several books including First Nations Education in Canada and Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision.
James (Sa’ke’j) Youngblood Henderson is Chickasaw, born to the Bear Clan of the Chickasaw Nation and Cheyenne Tribe in Oklahoma. He was one of the first American Indians to graduate in law from Harvard University. He is a member of the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Law and is Research Director of the University of Saskatchewan Native Law Centre. He is the author and editor of many books including our recent title (2008) Indigenous Diplomacy and the Rights of Peoples: Achieving UN Recognition, Mi’kmaq Concordat; The Road: Indian Tribes and Political Liberty; Aboriginal Tenure in the Constitution of Canada; and Continuing Poundmaker and Riel’s Quest. He is a leading advocate of the rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada and the international forum.
Price: $ 36.00
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