This paper offers an analysis of the collisions between Indigenous (Australian) normative systems on intangible resources and the Western intellectual property regimes. This study focuses prominently on Yolngu people of North-East Arnhem Land. The first part of the paper tackles the ‘inter-ethnic’ use of a specific notion: ‘tjuringa’. This is an Indigenous Australian term adopted by Western legal language to identify those Indigenous sacred objects that incorporate native knowledge. This concept provides for a key interpretive tool to understand the ‘cosmological’ connections that articulate the Indigenous Australian understanding of the production of their knowledge and their cultural objects. The second part of the paper outlines the standard structure of a Yolngu knowledge system, that is the Indigenous normative regime governing the creation and the management of the Yolngu knowledge. The third and last part of the paper explains what issues prevent an interpretation of tjuringa as intellectual property objects.

Copyright and Tjuringa: Can Australian "Dreaming" be Owned? / R. Mazzola - In: Challenges to indigenous political and socio-economic participation: Natural Resources, Gender, Education and Intellectual Property = Desafíos de los pueblos indígenas en su participación política y socio-económica: recursos naturales, género, educación y propiedad intelectual / [a cura di] A. Tomaselli, M. Rosti, R. Cammarata, C. Scardozzi. - Prima edizione. - [s.l] : Eurac Research, 2017. - ISBN 9788898857340. - pp. 393-411

Copyright and Tjuringa: Can Australian "Dreaming" be Owned?

R. Mazzola
2017

Abstract

This paper offers an analysis of the collisions between Indigenous (Australian) normative systems on intangible resources and the Western intellectual property regimes. This study focuses prominently on Yolngu people of North-East Arnhem Land. The first part of the paper tackles the ‘inter-ethnic’ use of a specific notion: ‘tjuringa’. This is an Indigenous Australian term adopted by Western legal language to identify those Indigenous sacred objects that incorporate native knowledge. This concept provides for a key interpretive tool to understand the ‘cosmological’ connections that articulate the Indigenous Australian understanding of the production of their knowledge and their cultural objects. The second part of the paper outlines the standard structure of a Yolngu knowledge system, that is the Indigenous normative regime governing the creation and the management of the Yolngu knowledge. The third and last part of the paper explains what issues prevent an interpretation of tjuringa as intellectual property objects.
Indigenous knowledge; Indigenous knowledge systems; intellectual property law; cultural property; Indigenous Australians
Settore IUS/20 - Filosofia del Diritto
2017
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/602186
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