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Cultural Commodification, Indigenous Peoples and Self-Determination

Members of our team gathered in Vancouver recently for an IPinCH-hosted public symposium and workshop that addressed the complexities of cultural commodification. Stay tuned for podcasts, videos, and photos from the event! (photo: K. Bannister)

New Podcast —"(De)Scriptive Methodologies: Hearing the Stories that Shape our Histories"

Gwyneira Isaac (right), Smithsonian Institution Curator and IPinCH Associate, gave a talk recently at Simon Fraser University, which is now available as a podcast. During her visit to SFU, Gwyneira met a number of other IPinCH team members, including Barbara Winter (left), Curator of SFU's Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. More >

Appropriation (?) of the Month: First Nation Totem Poles

IPinCH Fellow, Robin Gray, offers a Northwest Coast First Nation perspective on the appropriation of totem poles, citing examples such as Jeremy Scott's Adidas Originals collection from 2013 (photo: Adidas.ca). More > 

IPinCH Working with the Inuit Heritage Trust

In March, IPinCH team members Catherine Bell, Brian Egan, and George Nicholas, traveled to snowy Yellowknife to meet with members of the Inuit Heritage Trust, an IPinCH partner since 2008, and to begin the development of an initiative designed to enhance the management and protection of Inuit cultural heritage in Nunavut. More >

IPinCH connecting with San Heritage in Botswana

In Botswana, IPinCH ethnographer Alexis Bunten attended a San heritage festival where community members from Dobe celebrated and shared their traditions with visitors (A. Bunten photo, used with permission of Dobe dance troupe).

IPinCH in Alaska

Sheila Greer, IPinCH affiliate with Yukon First Nations Heritage Values and Heritage Resource Management community-based initiative, and Alexis Bunten, Project Ethnographer, visited the long house at the Chilkat Indian Village in Kluckwan, Alaska in March 2013. More > 

Welcome

Welcome to the Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage home page. This project represents an international, interdisciplinary collaboration among more than 50 scholars and 25 partnering organizations embarking on an unprecedented and timely investigation of intellectual property (IP) issues in cultural heritage that represent emergent local and global interpretations of culture, rights, and knowledge. Our objectives are:

  • to document the diversity of principles, interpretations, and actions arising in response to IP issues in cultural heritage worldwide;
  • to analyze the many implications of these situations;
  • to generate more robust theoretical understandings as well as exemplars of good practice; and
  • to make these findings available to stakeholders—from Aboriginal communities to professional organizations to government agencies—to develop and refine their own theories, principles, policies and practices.

We invite you to explore our website and to keep track of this project as it develops.

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Dr. Radut