A personal account of how copyright protects Indigenous art
There is the country non-Indigenous people can see, and then there is the country Indigenous people see that the rest of us can barely comprehend, but glimpse through the vivid colours, shapes and imagery of their artworks, and their visual recounting of ancient stories and settings.
The unauthorised use of Indigenous artworks is a global industry that damages cultural integrity and harms the livelihoods of artists and their communities. While the western idea of private or individual ownership can be at significant odds with tenets of Indigenous ownership and control, copyright remains one of the primary tools available to protect Indigenous visual artists from fakes, cultural threat and appropriation.
In Protecting Indigenous Art, leading intellectual property barrister Colin Golvan provides a privileged insight into how legal protection of Indigenous art offers unique opportunities to empower Indigenous artists and their communities.
Golvan gives a first-hand account of landmark legal campaigns such as the unauthorised reproduction of prominent Bulun Bulun artworks on T-shirts, the seminal carpets case, the campaign to recover the copyright of Arrernte artist Albert Namatjira and the extraordinary story of the Aboriginal flag.
Altogether, we get an understanding of the importance of protection for this much-loved form of artistic and cultural expression.
By:
Colin Golvan Imprint: MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRES Country of Publication: Australia Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 155mm,
Spine: 14mm
Weight: 392g ISBN:9780522880335 ISBN 10: 0522880339 Pages: 272 Publication Date:17 September 2024 Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format:Paperback Publisher's Status: Active
Colin Golvan AM KC is a long-time member of the Victorian Bar, with extensive involvement in the arts as an author, legal adviser and counsel, as a board member and supporter of arts organisations.