Tag Archives: cultural appropriation

Module 4:5 – iPinCH

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Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage (SFU)

The Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage site (IPinCH) is a group primarily concerned with archaeology and “the theoretical, ethical, and practical implications of commodification, appropriation, and other flows of knowledge about the past, and how these may affect communities, researchers, and other stakeholders.”  The Publications section lists many interesting pieces such as: “Protecting Indigenous Cultural Property in the Age of Digital Democracy: Institutional and Communal Responses to Canadian First Nations and Maori heritage Concerns” and “Control of Information Originating from Aboriginal Communities: Legal and Ethical Contexts”. The website’s blog has an “Appropriation of the Month” series, exposing and critiquing specific acts of cultural appropriation in the media or popular culture.

Module 4:4 – “Well, I heard it on the radio and I saw it on the television”

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“Well, I heard it on the radio and I saw it on the television: …

A free PDF of this 1993 essay by Marcia Langton is available on the archived website of Australian Film Commission. It is a discussion of the issues about Aboriginal representation and self-representation, in film and television particularly.

Since it is “unrealistic” to expect that others will stop portraying Aboriginal people in film and television, Langton says that it is important that Aboriginal people “control the means of production and make our own self-representations” wherever possible.  She  writes: “Freedom in the world of film and the arts can only thrive if there is also a strong critique, and in relation to Aboriginal matters, if the critique is anti-colonialist.”

 

Module 4:3 – Blinding the Duck

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http://www.duckdigital.net/FOD/FOD0781.html

Blinding the Duck is an online essay by an Australian academic, Simon Pockley, that “explores some of the complex issues arising from the use of digital images of Aboriginal people and material in The Flight of Ducks (a participatory online documentary built around a collection of objects from a camel expedition into Central Australia in 1933).”

The Flight of the Ducks was the author’s online PhD “documentary”. Images from the expedition, such as those of people who have since died, are displayed online, and have provoked shock and anger amongst Aboriginal people in Australia. Pockley tells the detailed story of this controversy – how some see the project as evil cultural appropriation, and how the University removed the project from its web servers.

Pockley says “This paper is a description of the methods used in The Flight of Ducks to accommodate Aboriginal cultural sensitivities…. It seeks to work towards the development of a protocol by which Australian historical material with Aboriginal references can be used online without…cultural conflict…”

Cultural appropriation, indigenous knowledge and libraries

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As a librarian, I have at times been responsible for collecting print and electronic resources about indigenous issues, and also for collecting resources that support aboriginal students in a range of college programs. In addition, libraries sometimes have collections of artifacts, acting as small museums or archives. In light of this, I would like to learn more about issues of cultural appropriation and indigenous knowledge as they relate to libraries in Canada.

What issues do librarians need to be aware of as they wield their power to select, classify, and store materials? The parallels between the organizing/standardizing imperative of Western colonial domination and the organizing, classifying, and standardization of knowledge in libraries is interesting. What are the limitations of print and published materials in representing indigenous knowledge? It would also be interesting to look at anxiety induced by physical library spaces (fear of acting inappropriately, of not knowing where to begin), and how this anxiety may be more intense for aboriginal students.

Sources will include academic literature on cultural appropriation of indigenous knowledge, and library literature about services and collections for aboriginal people. I recognize that I will need to be careful not to make generalizations about aboriginal culture and assume that one solution fits all circumstances.

A first reference:

Haig-Brown, C. (2010). Indigenous thought, appropriation, and non-aboriginal people. Canadian Journal of Education, 33(4), 925-950. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/docview/848717095?accountid=14656