Navigating the Landscape of Indigenous Knowledge – A Legal Perspective

Australia is a party to a number of international treaties and declarations which recognise the significance of traditional and Indigenous knowledge and cultural expressions, and emphasise the need to respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of Indigenous and local communities. For example, the Convention on Biological Diversity 1992 (CBD) provides member nations with the opportunity to establish regimes that would regulate foreign and domestic access to valuable genetic resources and traditional and Indigenous knowledge while establishing benefit-sharing mechanisms relating to that access. The CBD has also led to significant international debate on the interrelationship with intellectual property rights, particularly patent rights and plant breeders’ rights, which are often the end goal of the desire to access such genetic resources. Australia has been reluctant to take the necessary steps to adequately protect Indigenous knowledge and to ensure that equitable benefit sharing occurs in the use of that knowledge across the country. Conversely, some Indigenous communities have taken their own steps either to engage creatively with the intellectual property regime or to operate outside of that regime. This article will navigate this complex landscape and consider some of the solutions posed by other nations and regions of the world