Description
IPinCH is an international collaboration of archaeologists, lawyers, anthropologists, museum specialists, ethicists, policy makers, and Indigenous organizations, representing Canada, Australia, United States, New Zealand, South Africa, Germany, England, and Switzerland. Twenty-five partnering groups include:
- World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva)
- Parks Canada
- Canadian Archeological Association
- Indigenous groups ranging from the Penobscot Nation of Maine to the Moriori of Rekohu (Chatham Islands, New Zealand) to the Barunga Community of northern Australia.
The 7-year project began in 2008 with a $2.5 million grant from the Major Collaborative Research Initiatives program of Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. About one-fourth of the project budget is reserved for student fellowships and research support, and one-fourth for community-based heritage research for case studies related to the project themes. The project is led by Dr. Nicholas and guided by a steering committee of six team members representing five universities (Catherine Bell, Joe Watkins, and John Welch, plus Hollowell and Bannister). Team members represent 9 Canadian and 19 international universities, and 11 Canadian and international organizations. A project advisory board will review project activities in addition to advising on strategies for linking with stakeholders and dissemination of results (Michael Brown, Larry Chartrand, Robert Layton, Peter Levesque, Robert K. Paterson, Dame Marilyn Strathern, David Stephenson ).
The team will identify a range of intangible cultural heritage, intellectual property (IP) and ethical concerns faced by researchers, communities, and others, and use this information to generate ideas for norms of good practice and theoretical insights on the nature of knowledge, IP, and culture-based rights. Areas of particular concern are research on and access to cultural material and cultural heritage sites – including implications of applying both Indigenous and Western legal frameworks – cultural tourism, censorship, commercial use of rock art and other images, open vs. restricted access to information, applications in new products, bioarchaeology and the uses of ancient genetic data, legal protections, and research permissions and protocols.
The project will conduct 15 case studies employing a community-based heritage research methodology, compile an online archive and repository of popular articles, legislation, documents, websites, videos, and other items related to IP issues in cultural heritage, and explore the implications of the empirical data for theory and policy in topical working groups and publications. The results will assist archaeologists, academic institutions, descendant communities, scholars, policy makers, and other stakeholders in negotiating more equitable and successful terms of research and heritage policies in the future.
Read more about this topic: Intellectual Property Issues In Cultural Heritage Project
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