Indigenous Intellectual Property: An Interrupted Intergenerational Conversation

Indigenous Intellectual Property examines Indigenous intellectual property concerns as an Indigenous legal issue, drawing on diverse case studies from Gitxsan, Secwepemc, Hupacasath, Solomon Islands, and Hawaii. It challenges Western legal models and highlights the governance and civic value of intellectual property in Indigenous societies.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 176 pages
Publication date: 23 December 2024
Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Historically, Indigenous artistic, cultural, and societal expression has been recognized and analyzed within Canadian and international legal frameworks. This book recognizes Indigenous intellectual property concerns as an Indigenous legal issue that requires serious consideration within specific Indigenous legal orders. Indigenous Intellectual Property explores complex discussions about existing Indigenous intellectual property law, avoiding the tendency to confine Indigenous intellectual property to a Western legal model. Drawing on diverse case studies, this book examines the existing laws in the Gitxsan, Secwepemc, and Hupacasath (Nuu-chah-nulth) legal orders, as well as from the Solomon Islands and Hawaii. The case studies are rooted in their respective legal and oral histories and are 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 significant connections between Indigenous law and governance and citizenship. The book carefully considers how the governance and civic value of intellectual property points to the inadequacy of the current state and international intellectual property legal regimes in addressing 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.

Weight: 298g
Dimension: 151 x 229 x 14 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781487558222