Producing a critique : writing about indigenous knowledge, intellectual property and cultural heritage
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2010
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Indigenous knowledge as a subject for discussion and analysis has become more
prominent in academic literature and in public policy debates in the past decade or
more. In my own published works, one of my main themes has been to review and
critique Western legislative regimes’ attempts to define, protect, and regulate
Indigenous knowledge, especially in terms of what is often called ‘indigenous
intellectual property’. As a consequence of this interest in critique of legislation, I
have also explored questions around the intersection between Indigenous knowledge
and other kinds of knowledge, particularly that sometimes termed ‘Western science’.
This latter interest has led me to consider the ways in which Indigenous knowledge
and other forms of Indigenous heritage have been represented in ‘Western’ texts,
language and discourses, including legislative and administrative developments and
discussions, and in anthropological and historical writings.
This Essay presents a critical review of my published works, discussed within the
context of the particular circumstances (political, bureaucratic/administrative and
legislative) in which they were written. I explore the ways in which the sum of my
writings have contributed to, and at the same time have formed a critique of,
prevailing State authorised discourses relating to Indigenous knowledge that are
entrenched primarily in intellectual property rights law.
In this Essay I suggest that, as a consistent body of critique, my writings taken as a
whole are positioned outside, or between the borders of several discourses and bodies
of knowledge. This ‘cross-border’ position of my writings has, I argue, created the
possibility for a critique of Western discourses centred on intellectual property rights.
I discuss these aspects within a theoretical framework of colonial discourse studies
and postcolonial criticism.
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