Indigenous Intellectual Property

This book examines Indigenous intellectual property as a legal matter rooted in and operating within distinct Indigenous legal frameworks.

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Historically, Indigenous art and cultural/societal expression, intellectual property (IP) has been identified and examined within Canadian or international legal regimes. This book moves the discussion to within specific Indigenous legal orders. Indigenous Intellectual Property opens up complex discussions about existing Indigenous intellectual property law, and avoids the tendency to pigeonhole Indigenous IP into a Western legal model.

Drawing on diverse case studies, this book considers the existing laws in the Gitxsan, Secwepemc, and Hupacasath (Nuu-chah-nulth) legal orders, as well as from the Solomon Islands and Hawai’i. The case studies are grounded in their respective legal and oral histories, and contextualized within a broader discussion of Indigenous law, addressing issues of colonial myths, shrinking conceptions of Indigenous law, common resistances to Indigenous property and law, and important connections between Indigenous law and governance and citizenship.

The book carefully considers how the governance and civic value of intellectual property points to the unsuitability of the current state and international IP legal regimes to many Indigenous intellectual property concerns. Ultimately, Indigenous Intellectual Property reveals the various ways in which to identify and understand law within Indigenous societies – through narrative and story analysis, observations of practices and ceremonies, and political and legal ordering.