Indigenous Intellectual Property

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.

"This book charts an intriguing path through Indigenous intellectual property issues from authors at the forefront of the Indigenous law revitalization movement. Beyond constituting simply a subset - 'cultural property' - of Western intellectual property categories and their standard economic framing, the artefacts, performances, and know-how considered here are understood as playing crucial governance roles within evolving legal orders. The authors use stories and other materials from five Indigenous nations to draw out the legal logics in which creative products participate, redrawing the 'clash' of intellectual property paradigms as interjurisdictional problems to be confronted in practical ways. The chapters provide varied case studies ideal for teaching materials or for those seeking to deepen their understanding of how the 'intergenerational conversation' around Indigenous intellectual property is evolving in context."--Kirsten Anker, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, McGill University
"This pathbreaking book begins the crucial process of freeing intellectual property scholars, policymakers, and practitioners from stereotypical generalizations about pan-indigenous and Western legal orders governing knowledge. By concretizing and contextualizing the dynamism of several different indigenous legal systems, the authors reveal the rarely examined depth of existing Indigenous intellectual property laws. And their insightful observations and engaging narratives help readers see just how far these laws may reach."--Jeremy de Beer, Professor of Law, University of Ottawa

Val Napoleon is a professor, the director of the Indigenous Law Research Unit, and the Law Foundation Chair of Indigenous Justice and Governance in the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria.

Rebecca Johnson is a professor of law and the associate director of the Indigenous Law Research Unit in the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria.

Richard Overstall is a lawyer with a particular interest acting for indigenous groups constituted under their own laws.

Debra McKenzie is a research coordinator in the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria.

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