Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage

A Global Challenge

Marie Battiste, James (Sa’ke’j) Youngblood Henderson

Whether the approximately 500 million Indigenous Peoples in the world live in Canada, the United States, Australia, India, Peru, or Russia, they have faced a similar fate at the hands of colonizing powers. That has included assaults on their language and culture, commercialization of their art, and use of their plant knowledge in the development of medicine, all without consent, acknowledgement, or benefit to them.
 
The authors paint a passionate picture of the devastation these assaults have wrought on Indigenous peoples. They illustrate why current legal regimes are inadequate to protect Indigenous knowledge and put forward ideas for reform. This book looks at the issues from an international perspective and explores developments in various countries including Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and also at the work of the United Nations and all relevant international agreements.   

Contents

Part I: The Lodge of Indigenous Knowledge in Modern Thought
1: Eurocentrism and the European Ethnographic Tradition
2: What is Indigenous Knowledge?
Part II: Towards an Understanding of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to Their Knowledge and Heritage
3: The Concept of Indigenous Heritage Rights
4: The Importance of Language for Indigenous Knowledge
5: Decolonizing Cognitive Imperialism in Education
6: Religious Paradoxes
7: Paradigmatic Thought in Eurocentric Science
8: Ethical Issues in Research
9: Indigenous Heritage and Eurocentric Intellectual and Cultural Property Rights
Part III
10: The International Intellectual and Cultural Property Régime
11: The Canadian Constitutional Régime
12: The Canadian Legislative Régime
Part IV: The Need for Legal and Policy Reforms to Protect Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage
13: Rethinking Intellectual and Cultural Property
14: Current International Reforms
15: Enhancing Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage in National Law
16: Canadian Policy Considerations
Part V: Conclusion
Acronyms
References
Acts, Regulations, and Guidelines
Legal Cases
Index

About the Authors

Dr. Marie Battiste is a Mi’kmaq from Unama’kik (Cape Brenton, Nova Scotia), and a graduate of Harvard and Stanford. She is a professor in the Department of Educational Foundations, and Academic Director or the Aboriginal Education Research Centre, both at the University of Saskatchewan, and a United Nations technical expert on the guidelines for protecting Indigenous heritage. She is the editor of several books including First Nations Education in Canada and Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision.

James (Sa’ke’j) Youngblood Henderson is Chickasaw, born to the Bear Clan of the Chickasaw Nation and Cheyenne Tribe in Oklahoma. He was one of the first American Indians to graduate in law from Harvard University. He is a member of the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Law and is Research Director of the University of Saskatchewan Native Law Centre. He is the author and editor of many books including Mi’kmaq Concordat; The Road: Indian Tribes and Political Liberty; Aboriginal Tenure in the Constitution of Canada; Continuing Poundmaker and Riel’s Quest, and Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage. He is a leading advocate of the rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada and the international forum.