Author: tsteffen

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Module 4

Native Language Preservation: A Reference Guide for Establishing Archives and Repositories

During the MET 521 course there has been much discussion around the importance of preserving Native Languages, however very little specific information about how this is done on a practical level has been shared. This PDF guide is a practical reference guide that describes the specific steps and processes to preserve a language. Chapters include:

Chapter 1: Why Preserve Native Heritage Language Materials?

Chapter 2: What to Preserve: A Practical Approach to Preservation

 Chapter 3: What Is a Language Repository?

Chapter 4: How to build infrastructure to Preserve Native Language Materials

Chapter 5: Where to Locate Resources in Selected Native Repositories and How to Find Selected Native Language Materials

Chapter 6: Where to Locate Resources in Selected Educational, Federal, and Other Repositories

Note: There are also 11 assorted appendices included.

http://www.aihec.org/resources/documents/NativeLanguagePreservationReferenceGuide.pdf

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Module 4

UN Report: Indigenous Rights Ignored In Global IP Policy

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/01/14/un-report-indigenous-rights-ignored-in-global-ip-policy/

This 2010 web site provides a summary of, and link to, reportedly the first UN publication that attempts to provide an overview of the health, education, income, and access to employment status of the estimated 370 million Indigenous individuals living worldwide. The site also describes Western legal views versus Indigenous views of IP ownership. Of particular relevance to MET 521 is the section describing the discussions around perceived IP ownership being undertaken at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on traditional knowledge.

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Module 4

Public Ethics Radio – Episode 13: Sarah Holcombe on Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights

http://publicethicsradio.org/2010/05/28/episode-13-sarah-holcombe-on-indigenous-intellectual-property-rights/

This Public Ethics Radio clip examines questions around Australian Indigenous knowledge management, intellectual property rights, and research ethics. The guest speaker is social anthropologist Sarah Holcombe who is a research fellow at the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at the Australian National University. The audio clip is 32 minutes long.

Visit Dr. Holcombe’s website: http://law.anu.edu.au/ncis/holcombe.html

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Module 4

Protocols for Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights of Iwi

http://maoriart.org.nz/features/articles/protocols_discussion

This web site lists several Protocols for Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights of the Maori Iwi (traditional tribes), based on the Mataatua Declaration of Indigenous Rights. Included are eight recommendations to Iwi, 5 recommendations to states, national and international agencies, and 9 points describing biodiversity and customary environment management property rights.

Note: I was curious about the term Mataatua. Here’s what Wikipedia had listed for it:

Mataatua was one of the great voyaging canoes by which Polynesians migrated to New Zealand. Māori traditions say that the Mataatua was initially sent from Hawaiki to bring supplies of kūmara to Māori settlements in New Zealand. The Mataatua was captained by Toroa, accompanied by his brother, Puhi; his sister, Muriwai; his son, Ruaihona; and daughter, Wairaka.

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Module 4

Under CAFTA, Indigenous heritage becomes intellectual property for the United States

http://www.cancerplants.com/herbal_traditions.html

Throughout this course, I’ve found discussion around the issue of intellectual property particularly interesting. Living in British Columbia, it would be difficult to miss the ongoing debate around the local fisheries with regard to who owns what, and how far Indigenous people’s rights extend when it comes to rules around harvesting marine resources.

For these reasons, I found the Cancer Plants web page describing foreign ownership of the right to exploit a region’s abundant and diverse tropical flora, very provocative. According to this page, under the intellectual-property provisions of CAFTA, the US has forced legislation in member countries that potentially legalizes patenting the biological resources of the region to the benefit of pharmaceutical and agro-industrial companies. Indigenous communities and environmentalists call these practices biopiracy while international pharmaceutical companies and academic researchers call them bioprospecting. Whatever the term used, the ethical, environmental, and commercial implications of this practice could be enormous.

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Module 3

Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans

This Government of Canada Panel on Research Ethics website (Modified: 2010-03-22) Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, focuses on research involving Aboriginal peoples. Due to the fact that the agencies responsible for the formation of this policy statement feel that that there have so far been insufficient discussions with representatives of the Aboriginal communities involved, or with the various organizations or researchers involved, the agencies have decided that it is not yet appropriate to establish policies in this area. The text drafted to date (Section 6) builds on literature on research involving Aboriginal Peoples in Australia and abroad, and is intended to serve only as a starting point for discussions around a policy statement.

I find this website a somewhat hopeful government document for several reasons. For example it:

  • Respectfully acknowledges the unique cultures of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples and the fact that specific policy language needs to be crafted in order to accommodate these needs.
  • Describes clearly some of the past research techniques that have impacted Aboriginal peoples and “historical reasons why Indigenous or Aboriginal Peoples may legitimately feel apprehensive about the activities of researchers” and the subsequent harm that has resulted.
  • States the integral need to include Aboriginal groups in the formation of a complete policy statement.

http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca/eng/policy-politique/tcps-eptc/section6-chapitre6/

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Module 3

Canadian Residential Schools

While researching You Tube videos around the topic of Indigenous property rights, I came across a set of videos describing the Canadian Residential School experience. Although not directly related to this module’s topic, I had to include a couple of them. The second video poignantly illustrates the power of the technology. It is a devastating video to view.

Canadian Residential School Propaganda Video 1955:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_V4d7sXoqU&feature=related

Canadian Holocaust -Try Not to Cry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqPIh-267fg&feature=related

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Module 3

The Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project

The aim of the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project (HRELP) is to document endangered languages, train language documenters, preserve and disseminate documentation materials, and support endangered languages.

HRELP is based at SOAS, University of London, and consists of three programmes:

  • The Documentation Programme (ELDP) is providing £15 million in research grants to document the world’s most endangered languages.
  • The Academic Programme (ELAP) Teaches postgraduate courses in language documentation and description, and field linguistics. It also hosts post-doctoral fellows, researchers, visitors, and conducts seminars and training.
  •  The Archiving Programme (ELAR) is preserving and disseminating endangered language documentation, developing resources, and conducting training in documentation and archiving.

For more information: http://www.hrelp.org/

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Module 3

Globalization, Knowledge Economy and the implication for Indigenous Knowledge

This International Review of Information Ethics paper describes how globalization and the knowledge economy have affected Indigenous Knowledge. Globalization and the knowledge economy have both exposed IK for the potential and actual value it has yielded to the world’s most powerful multinational corporations and at the same time, negated IK by viewing it as untried and untested until it is validate by Western technology. The paper goes on to describe some of the many ways in which Indigenous knowledge has been commercialized and used in inappropriate ways. For all of these reasons, the author concludes that Indigenous knowledge needs to be protected. Several means of protection were explored including:

–          enacting suigeneris laws

–          documenting IK

–          seeking contract licensing

The paper then goes on to describe several specific initiatives in the developing world that are aimed at providing the much needed intervention to protect and promote IK in the face of globalizations.

www.i-r-i-e.net/inhalt/007/06-moahi.pdf

 

Categories
Module 3

Indigenous Knowledge: Foundations for First Nations

This well-written and thought provoking essay outlines the author’s view of the “fundamental assumptions underlying modern public school education” in Canada. She describes a historical perspective where education and knowledge were automatically assumed to be a positive liberator of individuals, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal alike, and a necessary step towards “and intrinsic to the progress and development of modern technological society.”

However, in citing examples where this has not been the case for Aboriginal learners, and in fact that the experience has been the polar opposite for these learners, she uses a phrase “cognitive imperialism” which describes a form of cognitive manipulation used to disclaim other knowledge bases and values. After further elaborating on cognitive imperialism, she goes on to describe her remedy for the situation which includes “a serious and far-reaching examination of the assumptions inherent in western knowledge, science and modern educational theory.”

Note: This essay is part of a study that responds to the Government of Canada’s working partnership with First Nations to improve the quality of Aboriginal life and education in Canada through research conducted with the Education Renewal Initiative.”

www.win-hec.org/docs/pdfs/Journal/Marie%20Battiste%20copy.pdf

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