By Claire Poirier and Ruth Aloua
At the 2014 meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology (March 17-22 in Albuquerque, New Mexico) five IPinCH graduate student Fellows presented their work in a panel titled Looking to the Past, Negotiating the Present, Informing the Future: Student Destinations in Engagement with Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage.
Organized by Joe Watkins and IPinCH Fellow Robin Gray, the panel featured papers by Robin, Claire Poirier, Davina Two Bears, Ruth-Rebeccalynne Aloua and Sarah Carr-Locke.
Each of the papers, broadly speaking, addressed the complexities affecting and emerging from the management of tangible and intangible indigenous heritage. Robin discussed the politics of Tsimshian song-sharing, in reference to the reclamation and repatriation of Tsimshian songs stored in an archive. By asking what constitutes the category of knowledge, Claire’s paper investigated how Alberta’s heritage management and consultation processes impose colonial categories on Plains Cree cosmology. In a critique of cultural resource management (CRM) on the Navaho reservation, Davina discussed her aspirations to effect change so that archaeological practice can reflect Navaho values. Ruth presented on her experience conducting community-based research with her own community in Hawai’i concerning how the National Park Service manages Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park. And finally, Sarah described how museums in Hawai’i and the Northwest Territories are diversifying interpretations of the past in public spaces through a postcolonial lens she refers to as ‘indigenous museology.’
These IPinCH student Fellows are challenging, changing and collaborating to create practices, theories and policies that are more representative of, and respectful to, indigenous peoples and their heritage.
The student panel was followed by a session organized by the IPinCH Cultural Tourism Working Group, titled Intellectual Property Issues and Cultural Tourism: Developing Resources for Communities. The session was chaired by Rachel Giraudo, and included papers by Lena Mortensen, Alexis Celeste Bunten, David Stephenson, Rachel, Dave Schaepe and Francine Douglas. The group shared the preliminary results of a collaborative project to create a reader that addresses intellectual property issues encountered in cultural tourism contexts. The reader, which will be produced in a storytelling format, is intended as a resource and training module for use by Indigenous and other communities.
Lena introduced the cultural tourism reader, outlining the philosophy, approach, and goals of this collaborative project. She also highlighted one planned section focusing on the role of self-representation and community “re-branding” in managing the circulation of tourism related imagery. Drawing from the experiences of communities involved in IPinCH, Alexis’s paper focused on the use of storytelling by Indigenous tourism professionals, as one way to take back ownership of dominant narratives imposed on their homes, histories, and identities. David evaluated the role of applied anthropology in creating opportunities for indigenous peoples to participate in cross-cultural tourism through traditional modes of expression. Rachel explored community-based tourism as an approach through which communities can reinforce their views of the land and reclaim access to it, enabling recognition of local stewardship of land and challenging prevalent conservation models. Dave and Francine shared their experiences working on the Cultural Experience Series (CES), an indigenous cultural tourism initiative of the Stó:lo Nation in British Columbia.
In addition to these formal panels, IPinCH team members also convened to discuss their various projects and to catch up on each other’s lives. Gathering together in Albuquerque provided an opportunity for exciting and engaging dialogues to emerge among this group of IPinCHers.
Photos: (top, L-R): Rachel Giraudo, Joe Watkins, Francine Douglas, Sarah Carr-Locke, David Stephenson, Lena Mortenson, Claire Poirier, Davina Two Bears, Robin R. R. Gray and in front, Carol Ellick and Ruth Aloua, at the SfAAs in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Here, the gang shows off their IPinCH affiliation (photo courtesy R. Giraudo); (middle) the SfAA 2014 meeting official logo; (bottom) IPinCH team members out for dinner in Albuquerque (photo courtesy R. Giraudo).
