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Gibson, Johanna --- "Audiences in Tradition: Traditional Knowledge and the Public Domain" [2007] ELECD 160; in Waelde, Charlotte; MacQueen, Hector (eds), "Intellectual Property" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: Intellectual Property

Editor(s): Waelde, Charlotte; MacQueen, Hector

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845428747

Section: Chapter 12

Section Title: Audiences in Tradition: Traditional Knowledge and the Public Domain

Author(s): Gibson, Johanna

Number of pages: 15

Extract:

12. Audiences in tradition: traditional
knowledge and the public domain
Johanna Gibson

1 INTRODUCTION
Indigenous and traditional knowledge has emerged as critical subject matter in
international trade and development. While presenting significant commercial
and research potential in various areas of knowledge and technology ­ including
medicine, agriculture and creative industries ­ such cultural resources are also
intrinsic to the integrity and identity specific to local and traditional communi-
ties. Historically, the appropriation of that knowledge was `justified' as
legitimate spoils of colonial, scientific and anthropological endeavour, where
the knowledge (like any other aspect of the environment `discovered' through
colonial exploration) was itself deemed `natural', part of humanity's global
heritage, and for the benefit of all. Indeed, the subjugation of the knowledge
and cultures of colonised peoples to the `superior' knowledge of the coloniser
can be identified as a critical aspect of the imperialist process.
Similarly, within current concerns over expanding intellectual property rights,
access to knowledge, and the vitality of the `public domain', the debate over
traditional knowledge seems to be dominated by the prior and governing con-
cerns of a global knowledge of a global public. In other words, traditional
knowledge was, and to an extent continues to be, interpreted within the dominant
legal and social discourse as common heritage rather than creative or personal
knowledge.1 The knowledge of traditional and indigenous communities is


1
Gray, S. (1996), `Squatting in Red Dust: Non-Aboriginal Law's Construction of
the "Traditional" Aboriginal Artist', 14(2) Law in Context 29, 30. ...