2018 Pre-ATALM Workshop Indigenous Intellectual Property: Developing Tools and Strategies

This hands-on workshop focused on identifying and finding solutions to copyright issues within collections, establishing decision making and governance around intellectual property within community contexts, and managing cultural material in digital contexts. Participants learned about Local Contexts (www.localcontexts.org) and the Traditional Knowledge (TK) Labels initiative. The workshop highlighted experiences around the return and ownership of Hopi sound recordings and Penobscot Nation's work developing intellectual property strategies and negotiating with institutions over the ownership of its collections. Workshop participants learned how to use TK Labels for their cultural heritage held both within tribal contexts and also in institutions external to the tribe. Participants were encouraged to think about their own community's/organization's issues around IP, to develop realistic strategies to address these and to consider which TK Labels could be implemented in their own contexts. This workshop was part of the ATALM 2018 Annual Conference, help on October 9 in Prior Lake, MN.

Instructors: Jane Anderson, Associate Professor and co-Director of Local Contexts, New York University; James Francis, Director of the Department of Cultural and Historic Preservation, Penobscot Nation; Donald Soctomah, Tribal Historian, Passamaquoddy Tribal Museum; Lisa Hillman, Director of the Pikyav Field Institute, Karuk Tribe.

Workshop Agenda