Indigenous Intellectual Property

An Interrupted Intergenerational Conversation

Val Napoleon, Rebecca Johnson, Richard Overstall , Debra McKenzie

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Hardback

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English

University of Toronto Press
19 January 2025

Indigenous peoples; Jurisprudence & general issues; Intellectual property law

Historically, Indigenous art and cultural/societal expression, intellectual property (IP) has been identified and examined within Canadian or international legal regimes. This book moves the discussion to within specific Indigenous legal orders. Indigenous Intellectual Property opens up complex discussions about existing Indigenous intellectual property law, and avoids the tendency to pigeonhole Indigenous IP into a Western legal model.

Drawing on diverse case studies, this book considers the existing laws in the Gitxsan, Secwepemc, and Hupacasath (Nuu-chah-nulth) legal orders, as well as from the Solomon Islands and Hawai'i. The case studies are grounded in their respective legal and oral histories, and contextualized within a broader discussion of Indigenous law, addressing issues of colonial myths, shrinking conceptions of Indigenous law, common resistances to Indigenous property and law, and important connections between Indigenous law and governance and citizenship.

The book carefully considers how the governance and civic value of intellectual property points to the unsuitability of the current state and international IP legal regimes to many Indigenous intellectual property concerns. Ultimately, Indigenous Intellectual Property reveals the various ways in which to identify and understand law within Indigenous societies

through narrative and story analysis, observations of practices and ceremonies, and political and legal ordering.

Edited by: Val Napoleon, Rebecca Johnson, Richard Overstall, Debra McKenzie
Imprint: University of Toronto Press
Country of Publication: Canada
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 1g
ISBN: 9781487558215
ISBN 10: 148755821X
Pages: 176
Publication Date: 19 January 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Introduction 1. The Octopus: What Might Constitute Indigenous Intellectual Property Val Napoleon 2. Secwepemc Law of Intellectual Property Debra McKenzie 3. A People of Themselves: Some Field Notes on Gitxsan Law Richard Overstall 4. Owning the hula? Debra McKenzie 5. Conversational Flows: Indigenous Property in the Law School Lounge Rebecca Johnson

Val Napoleon is a professor, the director of the Indigenous Law Research Unit, and the Law Foundation Chair of Indigenous Justice and Governance in the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria. Rebecca Johnson is a professor of law and the associate director of the Indigenous Law Research Unit in the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria. Richard Overstall is a lawyer with a particular interest acting for indigenous groups constituted under their own laws. Debra McKenzie is a research coordinator in the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria.