Cultural Heritage &
Indigenous Cultural & Intellectual Property
Rights
A World Archaeological Congress Symposium
Click here to view photos and video from the Symposium
 Venue: Burra,
South Australia
Dates: 3-5 December 2006
Convenors: Claire
Smith and Heather
Burke, Department of Archaeology, Flinders
University
Conference Co-ordinator: Tim Ormsby
Sessions
 This
cross-disciplinary international conference will
address the history of and contemporary developments
in the intersections between cultural heritage
and cultural and intellectual property rights
in Indigenous customary and academic worlds. Key
speakers include Julie
Hollowell and George
Nicholas, Canada and Sven
Ouzman, South Africa. The conference will
be held in the heritage town of Burra,
South Australia, in the traditional country of
the Ngadjuri people. Burra is a significant location
for discussion of this topic, since it was the
site where the Burra
Charter (the Australia
ICOMOS charter for places of cultural significance)
was developed. The significance of this charter
is recognized internationally, and our planned
conference also will be addressing issues of international
significance. We expect that selected papers from
this conference will form the core of an edited
book.
 Claims to the ownership and use of cultural and
intellectual property rights and associated or
intrinsic rights are rapidly emerging in most,
if not all, research disciplines and in many policy
contexts, as the economic, scientific, political
and cultural uses and values of traditional and
Indigenous knowledge demand mounting attention.
Concerns about intangible heritage and cultural
and intellectual property rights span diverse
disciplines - from law, information technology,
and art to applied research ethics, bioprospecting
and human rights, and especially in archaeology,
as an academic discipline whose scholars are deeply
enmeshed in both policies and practices of cultural
heritage. These issues cut across both disciplinary
and geographic boundaries, and stakeholders include
individual researchers, local communities, federal
agencies, universities, museums and international
organisations, as well as developers, tourism
firms, and media producers as well as the public
at large.
 Over the past two decades this discussion has
prompted new interpretations of cultural property
rights, which in turn have provoked major shifts
in the policies and practices adopted by archaeologists,
bio-anthropologists, descendant communities, governments
and museums around the world. To date, however,
these discussions have focused largely on issues
of material or physical property, and practices
associated with this property such as physical
repatriation of people and material culture, of
collection and curatorial practice, trade in antiquities
and heritage management , such as repatriation,
museum and curation practices, the antiquities
trade, and heritage management. At this point,
discussions need to move beyond ' Who owns the
past?' to examine the diverse and divergent uses
of past knowledge systems, and who does and does
not benefit materially. Markedly less attention
has been given to the intangible and intellectual
aspects of scholarly research or cultural knowledge,
and its representation, although this promises
to be the next wave in policy research. Accordingly,
this conference will address the following key
questions:
- How are people employing concepts of cultural
and intellectual property to lay claim(s) to
the past, present and future?
- What examples do we have of successful uses
and applications of the intellectual property
system or, conversely, of the intellectual property
and cultural heritage hindering success, especially
in cross-cultural contexts?
- What forms of legal and/or customary protection
exist for intellectual property and cultural
heritage? How do these apply to knowledge produced
by academic research? What kind of variation
exists in this, world-wide?
- In what areas do problems tend to arise?
How might such problems be avoided?
- What are the key elements of successful,
equitable resolutions of cultural and intellectual
property rights issues, and what examples exist
of how to translate these into workable policy
and protocols?
 This conference will take an international perspective
to examine in depth the cultural and intellectual
property issues facing Indigenous, customary and
academic communities, and examine critically the
successes and failures of efforts to resolve such
issues. This conference will use used to identify
core issues. Our ultimate aim is to inform protocol-
and policy-making at individual community, national
and international levels. The overall goal of this
research is to provide foundational knowledge and
data to assist scholars, Indigenous communities,
and other stakeholders in developing more equitable
and successful resolutions and policies regarding
the cultural and intellectual property rights issues
that are fast emerging.
This conference is one facet of a global project
being co-ordinated by George Nicholas, Julie Hollowell
and Kelly Bannister, which has received seed funding
from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council, Canada.
Entry Formalities
A valid passport or similar certificate of identification
is required of all people wishing to travel to
and enter Australia. Everyone, except holders
of Australian and New Zealand passports, requires
a visa to enter Australia (New Zealand passport
holders can apply for a visa upon arrival). Americans
may enter with an Australian visa or, if eligible,
through Electronic Travel Authority (ETA). This
replaces a visa and allows a stay of up to three
months. It can be obtained for a small fee at
http://www.eta.immi.gov.au. Airlines and travel
agents can also issue ETAs. More information about
ETAs and other entry requirements can be obtained
from the Embassy of Australia,1601 Massachusetts
Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036, or via the
Australian Embassy home page at http://www.austemb.org.
For information on Australian visas requirements
go to the web site of the Department of Immigration
and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs* (www.immi.gov.au).
For the location of your nearest Australian consulate
go to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's*
website (www.dfat.gov.au).
Working Holiday Maker
Australia has reciprocal Working Holiday Maker (WHM) arrangements with a number of other countries. This allows young people on holiday to earn cash through 'incidental' employment, as long as they meet visa requirements. The word 'incidental' is interpreted pretty broadly, and includes any kind of work of a temporary or casual nature. Currently, Australia has reciprocal WHM arrangements in effect with 19 countries: the UK, Canada, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malta, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Cyprus, Italy, France, Belgium, Estonia and Taiwan. If you obtain a WHM visa, you can stay up to 12 months from the date of your initial entry into Australia, regardless of whether or not you spend the entire period in Australia.
To qualify for a WHM visa, you need to be aged between 18 and 30 and without dependent children. You must be visiting Australia primarily for a holiday and you must have a return ticket or sufficient funds to pay your return or onward fare, should the need arise, as well as sufficient money to cover the first part of your stay. The intention of this scheme is to allow you to work in Australia to fund a holiday, not to obtain semi-permanent employment, so you are not allowed to work with any single employer for more than three months. Remember, you must apply for a WHM visa outside Australia and before you turn 30. Information about the WHM scheme can be obtained from the website of Australia's Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) (www.immi.gov.au).
 Accommodation
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