copyright, intellectual property, indigenous knowledge

She was like the lizard that fell into the water and became a crocodile works with land through photographs that are cut, reassembled, and sutured into collaged forms. The seams have been left open; the ruptures are central to each work. Observing the sutured landscapes becomes a meditation on responsibility and on the uneasy coexistence of care, complicity, and inherited harm. The collages return the act of looking back onto the viewer, presenting their scars. To engage with them is to confront one’s position within ongoing colonial systems and to acknowledge the violences that remain embedded in the land and in the systems that have fractured its sovereignty. To look to the land is to feel the weight of what has been done to it and to those who belong to it, while recognising how it continues to nourish, restore, and strengthen. Looking demands attentiveness and accountability, insisting on the ethical and relational dimensions of vision itself. The images collaged throughout She was like the lizard that fell into the water and became a crocodile combine photographs taken by the artist on unceded Country in south-western Victoria over the past decade —across the lands of the Wauthaurong, Bunurong, Wadawurrung, and Gunditjmara —with archival material sourced from the State Library of Victoria of the same areas. The archival images, produced exclusively by white colonial settler photographers, documented and mapped the land, creating visual records that both precede and actively participate in the colonial inscription of place. By bringing these materials into dialogue, the work creates a confrontation between lived Indigenous presence and the extractive logic of the colonial archive.A series of ten photographic collages 2O.5 X 15CM EACHfirst nations art, aboriginal australian art, gunditjmara culture, djabwurrung culture, indigenous knowledge systems, indigenous sovereignty, cultural reclamation, cultural memory, storytelling, contemporary indigenous identity, aboriginal women, womanhood, motherhood, indigenous feminism, spirituality, first nations, photography

1. The moral lexicon of the Warlpiri people of central Australia LR Hiatt This paper discusses words that match ?Good? and ?Bad?; examples of ?Good? and ?Bad? behaviour; morality and law; and egalitarianism and dominance. It also presents a comparison with Gidjingarli (Burarra). 2. Mobs and bosses: Structures of Aboriginal sociality Patrick Mullins (Mount Druitt, NSW) A commonality of Aboriginal social organisation exists across the continent in communities as different as those from the Western Desert across to Cape York, from the towns of New South Wales and Western Australia to cities like Adelaide. This is found in the colloquial expressions ?mob? and ?boss?, which are used in widely differing contexts. Mobbing is the activity where relatedness, in the sense of social alliances, is established and affirmed by virtue of a common affiliation with place, common experience and common descent, as well as by the exchange of cash and commodities. Bossing is the activity of commanding respect by virtue of one?s capacity to bestow items of value such as ritual knowledge, nurturance, care, cash and commodities. Mobbing and bossing are best understood as structures in Giddens? sense of sets of rules and resources involved in the production of social systems, in this case social alliances. Mobbing and bossing imply a concept of a person as a being in a relationship. Attention needs to be given to the way these structures interact with institutions in the wider Australian society. 3. Recognising victims without blaming them: A moral contest? About Peter Sutton?s ?The Politics of Suffering: Indigenous Policy in Australia since the 1970s? and Gillian Cowlishaw?s replies Ma�a Ponsonnet (Universit� Paris- 8-Saint-Denis) Peter Sutton?s texts on Aboriginal violence, health and their politicisation are replied to using his methodology, and acknowledging his convincing points. Sutton rightly denounces a lack of lucidity and scientific objectivity in anthropological debates. These inadequacies impede identification of what Aboriginal groups can do to improve their situations for fear that this identification would lead to blame the victims. At the other end of the ethical spectrum, those who advocate a broader use of what I will call a ?resistance interpretation? of violence fail to recognise victims as such, on the implicit grounds that seeing victims as victims would deprive them of any agency, on the one hand, and entail blame, on the other hand. I aim to define a middle road between those views: the idea that victims should be acknowledged as such without being denied their agency and without being blamed for their own condition. This middle road allows identification of the colonisers? responsibilities in the contemporary situation of Indigenous communities in Australia, and to determine who can do what. Secondly, I show that Sutton?s texts convey, through subtle but recurrent remarks, an ideology of blame rather than a mere will to identify practical solutions. As a consequence, some of his proposals do not stand on a solid and objective causal analysis. 4. 'You would have loved her for her lore?: The letters of Daisy Bates Bob Reece (Murdoch University) Daisy Bates was once an iconic figure in Australia but her popular and academic reputation became tarnished by her retrograde views. Her credibility was also put in doubt through the exposure of her fictionalised Irish background. In more recent times, however, her ethnographic data on the Aborigines of Western Australia has been an invaluable source for Native Title claims, while her views on Aboriginal extinction, cannibalism and ?castes? are being seen as typical of her time. This article briefly reviews what has been the orthodox academic opinion of her scientific achievement before summarising what is reliably known of her early history and indicating what kind of person is revealed in the 3000 or more letters that she left behind. 5. What potential might Narrative Therapy have to assist Indigenous Australians reduce substance misuse? Violet Bacon (Curtin University of Technology) Substance misuse is associated with adverse consequences for many Australians including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Extensive research has been conducted into various intervention, treatment and prevention programs to ascertain their potential in reducing substance misuse within Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities. I explore the potential of Narrative Therapy as a counselling intervention for assisting Indigenous Australians reduce the harm associated with substance misuse. 6. Bone points from the Adelaide River, Northern Territory Sally Brockwell (University of Canberra) and Kim Akerman (Moonah) Large earth mounds located next to the vast floodplains of the lower Adelaide River, one of the major tropical rivers draining the flat coastal plains of northern Australia, contain cultural material, including bone points. The floodplains of the north underwent dynamic environmental change from extensive mangrove swamps in the mid-Holocene, through a transition phase of variable estuarine and freshwater mosaic environments, to the freshwater environment that exists today. This geomorphological framework provides a background for the interpretation of the archaeology, which spans some 4000 years. 7. A different look: Comparative rock-art recording from the Torres Strait using computer enhancement techniques Liam M Brady (Monash University) In 1888 and 1898, Cambridge University?s Alfred C Haddon made the first recording of rock-art from the Torres Strait islands using photography and sketches. Systematic recording of these same paintings and sites was carried out from 2000 to 2004 by archaeologists and Indigenous Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal communities as part of community-based rock-art recording projects. Computer enhancement techniques were used to identify differences between both sets of recordings, to reveal design elements that Haddon missed in his recordings, and to recover images recorded by Haddon that are today no longer visible to the naked eye. Using this data, preliminary observations into the antiquity of Torres Strait rock-art are noted along with recommendations for future Torres Strait region rock-art research and baseline monitoring projects. 8. Sources of bias in the Murray Black Collection: Implications for palaeopathological analysis Sarah Robertson (National Museum of Australia) The Murray Black collection of Aboriginal skeletal remains has been a mainstay of bio-anthropological research in Australia, but relatively little thought has been given to how and why this collection may differ from archaeologically obtained collections. The context in which remains were located and recovered has created bias within the sample, which was further skewed within the component of the collection sent to the Australian Institute of Anatomy, resulting in limitations for the research potential of the collection. This does not render all research on the collection unviable, but it demonstrates the importance of understanding the context of a skeletal collection when assessing its suitability for addressing specific research questions.maps, b&w photographs, colour photographs, illustrations, graphs, chartswarlpiri, sociology, daisy bates, substance abuse, narrative therapy, rock art, technology and art, murray black collection, pleistocene sites, watarrka plateau

'Whose Ethics?':Codifying and enacting ethics in research settings Bringing ethics up to date? A review of the AIATSIS ethical guidelines Michael Davis (Independent Academic) A revision of the AIATSIS Guidelines for Ethical Research in Indigenous Studies was carried out during 2009-10. The purpose of the revision was to bring the Guidelines up to date in light of a range of critical developments that have occurred in Indigenous rights, research and knowledge management since the previous version of the Guidelines was released in 2000. In this paper I present an outline of these developments, and briefly discuss the review process. I argue that the review, and the developments that it responded to, have highlighted that ethical research needs to be thought about more as a type of behaviour and practice between engaged participants, and less as an institutionalised, document-focused and prescriptive approach. The arrogance of ethnography: Managing anthropological research knowledge Sarah Holcombe (ANU) The ethnographic method is a core feature of anthropological practice. This locally intensive research enables insight into local praxis and culturally relative practices that would otherwise not be possible. Indeed, empathetic engagement is only possible in this close and intimate encounter. However, this paper argues that this method can also provide the practitioner with a false sense of his or her own knowing and expertise and, indeed, with arrogance. And the boundaries between the anthropologist as knowledge sink - cultural translator and interpreter - and the knowledge of the local knowledge owners can become opaque. Globalisation and the knowledge ?commons?, exemplified by Google, also highlight the increasing complexities in this area of the governance and ownership of knowledge. Our stronghold of working in remote areas and/or with marginalised groups places us at the forefront of negotiating the multiple new technological knowledge spaces that are opening up in the form of Indigenous websites and knowledge centres in these areas. Anthropology is not immune from the increasing awareness of the limitations and risks of the intellectual property regime for protecting or managing Indigenous knowledge. The relevance of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in opening up a ?rights-based? discourse, especially in the area of knowledge ownership, brings these issues to the fore. For anthropology to remain relevant, we have to engage locally with these global discourses. This paper begins to traverse some of this ground. Protocols: Devices for translating moralities, controlling knowledge and defining actors in Indigenous research, and critical ethical reflection Margaret Raven (Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy (ISTP), Murdoch University) Protocols are devices that act to assist with ethical research behaviour in Indigenous research contexts. Protocols also attempt to play a mediating role in the power and control inherent in research. While the development of bureaucratically derived protocols is on the increase, critiques and review of protocols have been undertaken in an ad hoc manner and in the absence of an overarching ethical framework or standard. Additionally, actors implicated in research networks are seldom theorised. This paper sketches out a typology of research characters and the different moral positioning that each of them plays in the research game. It argues that by understanding the ways actors enact research protocols we are better able to understand what protocols are, and how they seek to build ethical research practices. Ethics and research: Dilemmas raised in managing research collections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander materials Grace Koch (AIATSIS) This paper examines some of the ethical dilemmas for the proper management of research collections of Indigenous cultural materials, concentrating upon the use of such material for Native Title purposes. It refers directly to a number of points in the draft of the revised AIATSIS Guidelines for Ethical Research in Indigenous Studies and draws upon both actual and hypothetical examples of issues that may arise when requests are made for Indigenous material. Specific concerns about ethical practices in collecting data and the subsequent control of access to both the data itself and to published works based upon it are raised within the context of several types of collections, including those held by AIATSIS and by Native Title Representative Bodies. Ethics or social justice? Heritage and the politics of recognition Laurajane Smith (ANU) Nancy Fraser?s model of the politics of recognition is used to examine how ethical practices are interconnected with wider struggles for recognition and social justice. This paper focuses on the concept of 'heritage' and the way it is often uncritically linked to 'identity' to illustrate how expert knowledge can become implicated in struggles for recognition. The consequences of this for ethical practice and for rethinking the role of expertise, professional discourses and disciplinary identity are discussed. The ethics of teaching from country Michael Christie (CDU), with the assistance of Yi?iya Guyula, Kathy Gotha and Dh�?gal Gurruwiwi The 'Teaching from Country' program provided the opportunity and the funding for Yol?u (north-east Arnhem Land Aboriginal) knowledge authorities to participate actively in the academic teaching of their languages and cultures from their remote homeland centres using new digital technologies. As two knowledge systems and their practices came to work together, so too did two divergent epistemologies and metaphysics, and challenges to our understandings of our ethical behaviour. This paper uses an examination of the philosophical and pedagogical work of the Yol?u Elders and their students to reflect upon ethical teaching and research in postcolonial knowledge practices. Closing the gaps in and through Indigenous health research: Guidelines, processes and practices Pat Dudgeon (UWA), Kerrie Kelly (Australian Indigenous Psychologists Association) and Roz Walker (UWA) Research in Aboriginal contexts remains a vexed issue given the ongoing inequities and injustices in Indigenous health. It is widely accepted that good research providing a sound evidence base is critical to closing the gap in Aboriginal health and wellbeing outcomes. However, key contemporary research issues still remain regarding how that research is prioritised, carried out, disseminated and translated so that Aboriginal people are the main beneficiaries of the research in every sense. It is widely acknowledged that, historically, research on Indigenous groups by non-Indigenous researchers has benefited the careers and reputations of researchers, often with little benefit and considerably more harm for Indigenous peoples in Australia and internationally. This paper argues that genuine collaborative and equal partnerships in Indigenous health research are critical to enable Aboriginal and Torres Islander people to determine the solutions to close the gap on many contemporary health issues. It suggests that greater recognition of research methodologies, such as community participatory action research, is necessary to ensure that Aboriginal people have control of, or significant input into, determining the Indigenous health research agenda at all levels. This can occur at a national level, such as through the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Road Map on Indigenous research priorities (RAWG 2002), and at a local level through the development of structural mechanisms and processes, including research ethics committees? research protocols to hold researchers accountable to the NHMRC ethical guidelines and values which recognise Indigenous culture in all aspects of research. Researching on Ngarrindjeri Ruwe/Ruwar: Methodologies for positive transformation Steve Hemming (Flinders University) , Daryle Rigney (Flinders University) and Shaun Berg (Berg Lawyers) Ngarrindjeri engagement with cultural and natural resource management over the past decade provides a useful case study for examining the relationship between research, colonialism and improved Indigenous wellbeing. The Ngarrindjeri nation is located in south-eastern Australia, a ?white? space framed by Aboriginalist myths of cultural extinction recycled through burgeoning heritage, Native Title, natural resource management ?industries?. Research is a central element of this network of intrusive interests and colonising practices. Government management regimes such as natural resource management draw upon the research and business sectors to form complex alliances to access funds to support their research, monitoring, policy development, management and on-ground works programs. We argue that understanding the political and ethical location of research in this contemporary management landscape is crucial to any assessment of the potential positive contribution of research to 'Bridging the Gap' or improving Indigenous wellbeing. Recognition that research conducted on Ngarrindjeri Ruwe/Ruwar (country/body/spirit) has impacts on Ngarrindjeri and that Ngarrindjeri have a right and responsibility to care for their lands and waters are important platforms for any just or ethical research. Ngarrindjeri have linked these rights and responsibilities to long-term community development focused on Ngarrindjeri capacity building and shifts in Ngarrindjeri power in programs designed to research and manage Ngarrindjeri Ruwe/Ruwar. Research agreements that protect Ngarrindjeri interests, including cultural knowledge and intellectual property, are crucial elements in these shifts in power. A preliminary review of ethics resources, with particular focus on those available online from Indigenous organisations in WA, NT and Qld Sarah Holcombe (ANU) and Natalia Gould (La Trobe University) In light of a growing interest in Indigenous knowledge, this preliminary review maps the forms and contents of some existing resources and processes currently available and under development in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia, along with those enacted through several cross-jurisdictional initiatives. A significant majority of ethics resources have been developed in response to a growing interest in the application of Indigenous knowledge in land and natural resource management. The aim of these resources is to ?manage? (i.e. protect and maintain) Indigenous knowledge by ensuring ethical engagement with the knowledge holders. Case studies are drawn on from each jurisdiction to illustrate both the diversity and commonality in the approach to managing this intercultural engagement. Such resources include protocols, guidelines, memorandums of understanding, research agreements and strategic plans. In conducting this review we encourage greater awareness of the range of approaches in practice and under development today, while emphasising that systematic, localised processes for establishing these mechanisms is of fundamental importance to ensuring equitable collaboration. Likewise, making available a range of ethics tools and resources also enables the sharing of the local and regional initiatives in this very dynamic area of Indigenous knowledge rights.b&w photographs, colour photographsngarrindjeri, ethics, ethnography, indigenous research, social justice, indigenous health