User talk:Bruceanthro/Sandbox

Indigenous intellectual property article

DODS20070525:

Purpose

(Page 1): Special Rapporteur was appointed and charged with scoping a proposed study investigating the extent to which customary laws should be reflected in international and national standards. The Special Rapporteur was as to include an analysis of the potential of indigenous customary laws to provide a sui generis system for protecting indigenous traditional knowledge.

Definitions:

(Pg 4) “Indigenous traditional knowledge” is used .. to mean the traditional practices, culture, knowledge of plants and animals and knowledge of their methods of propagation; it includes expressions of cultural values, beliefs, rituals and community laws and it includes knowledge regarding land and ecosystem management. It is more often unwritten and handed down orally from generation to generation and it is transmitted and preserved in this way. Some of this knowledge is of a highly sacred and secret nature and therefore extremely sensitive and culturally significant and not readily publicly available, even to members within the particular group."

(Pg 12) International intellectual property law provides protection for creators of certain works, whether it is literature, music, dance or art and are, at times suffice. However, for the most part intellectual property law fails to protect indigenous rights and interests because western constructs of intellectual property focus on individual knowledge and creativity, rather than communal trans-generational knowledge.

(Pg 12) Due to the unique nature of indigenous experience, the unique nature of indigenous knowledge, and the role of customary law, "..indigenous traditional knowledge is not simply a different type of [western style] intellectual property; [rather] it is a completely different entity.'

Data:

20000000: (pg 4) United Nations Permanent forum on Indigenous Issues is formed, following which it makes a number of recommendations calling for inadequate protection of traditional knowledge to be addressed.

20050900: (pg 5) United Nations Permanent forum convenes an international technical working group at Panama City bringing together indigenous experts and United Nations agencies, at which the relationship between traditional knowledge and customary laws is recognised, and a study recommended as to the extent customary laws should be included in international and national standards to protect traditional knowledge

20050500:
(pg 5-6) Right of Indigenous people to protect and enjoy traditional knowledge is recognised in the following international instruments:

• Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
• Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
• Article 15(1)(c) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Civil Rights;
• Article 8(j) of the Convention on Biological Diversity;
• International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture;
• Articles 13, 15 and 23 of the International Labour Organization Convention No. 169;
• Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works;
• Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights;
• Article 3 of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Particularly in Africa;
• Paragraph 12(d) of the Authoritative Statement of Principles for a Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of all Types of Forests (1992);
• Paragraph 26.1 of Chapter 26 of Agenda 21;
• World Health Organization’s Traditional Medicine Strategy 2002-2005;
• Principle 22 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development;
• Articles 11 and 31 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

(pg 6) Regional systems for the protection and enjoyment of traditional knowledge include:

• Organisation of American States Draft Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• Bangui Agreement of the Organisation Africaine de la Properiete Intellectuelle
• Tunis Model Laws and the Model Provisions.

(pg 6) Declerations include

• Mataatua Declaration
• Kari-Oca Declaration.

(pg 7) Comrehensive list of State legislative texts directed at protecting aspects of traditional knowledge/ expression of traditional knowledge can be found on the WIPO web page

(pg 7-8) Examples acknowledge indigenous peoples right to 'enjoy' aspects of their traditional knowledge include:

• Australia's Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Amendment) Regulations (No. 2) 2005, Part 8A.01(c) - recognising the “…special knowledge held by Indigenous persons about biological resources.”
• Northern Territtory (Australia)'s Health Practitioners and Allied Professionals Registration Act 1985. - partially recognising traditional medicinal knowledge by empowering Aboriginal Health Workers to work and act as a bridge between traditional healers, indigenous communities and conventional medical practitioners.
• Canada's Environmental Assessment Act 1992, Section 16(1). provides for consideration of “…aboriginal traditional knowledge … in conducting an environmental assessment.”
• South Africa's Traditional Health Practitioners Act 2004 recognises and regulates the practice of traditional medicine in that country
• South Africa's National Environmental Management Act 1998 directs decision makers on environmental matters to take into account all forms of knowledge, including traditional knowledge.
• Bolovia's Supreme Decree No. 24, 122 of 1995, establishes a national system of protected areas wherein traditional knowledge is acknowledged and used in management practice.
• Ecuador's national constitution recognises the practice of traditional medicine
• Phillipines Traditional and Alternative Medicine Act 1997, Section 4(b)defines traditional medicine as “…the sum total of knowledge, skills, and practice on health care, not necessarily explicable in the context of modern, scientific philosophical framework, but recognized by the people to help maintain and improve their health towards the wholeness of their being, the community and society, and their interrelations based on culture, history, heritage, and consciousness.”

(Pg 8) Examples of State's using 'intellectual property' instruments or mechanisms to protect 'traditional knowledge' include:

• Nigeria's Copyright Act 1990 - which seeks to protect traditional folk law. Article 28(5) defines folklore as “a group-oriented and tradition-based creation of groups or individuals reflecting the expectation of the community as an inadequate expression of its cultural and social identity, its standards and values as transmitted orally, by imitation or by other means”.
• Central African Republic's Ordinance No. 85-002 on Copyright (Central African Republic)defines folklore as, “all literary and artistic productions created by the national communities, passed on from generation to generation and constituting one of the basic elements of the traditional cultural heritage.”
• Ghana's Copy Right Act 2005 seeks to protect traditional folklore

(Pg 11) International, regional, and national instruments do provide some protection of traditional knowledge, but there is no 'comprehensive' protection. United Nations agencies and intergovernmental organisations working to address this inadequate protection include:

• World Intellectual Property Organization
• United Nations Development Programme,
• United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
• Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity
• Working Group on Indigenous Populations
• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

(Pg 12) Most recent developments are represented within the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (“WIPO”) activities, as follows:

• In 2000, WIPO established an Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (“IGC”) to provide a forum to consider the interplay between intellectual property law and indigenous traditional knowledge.

• the IGC developed two comprehensive draft provisions addressing the protection of indigenous traditional knowledge. These two documents set out a potential system of protection and aim to comprehensively address the practical issues that arise in the implementation of a sui generis system of protection

• the IGC have approved a study of customary law in recognition of the role of customary law and its relationship with indigenous traditional knowledge. Bruceanthro (talk) 06:17, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

• WIPO, through the IGC, have played a leading role in the push for the recognition and protection of indigenous traditional knowledge from misuse and misappropriation. However, the pre-eminent role of WIPO has meant this international debate has occurred primarily within the parameters of intellectual property law.

(pg 19) there are indigenous peoples living in approximately 70 countries throughout the world, constituting approximately 350 million people,including 5000 distinct peoples and over 4000 languages and cultures Bruceanthro (talk) 02:20, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Findings

• It is important to recognise that much of the focus on this issue has been on protecting indigenous peoples from the misappropriation and misuse of traditional knowledge without the free, prior and informed consent of the traditional knowledge owners. Any system of protection that is developed needs to ensure that traditional knowledge is not inappropriately taken without the free, prior and informed consent of the relevant peoples. However, the desire to protect traditional knowledge also includes the desire to recognise ownership and control, which creates an opportunity for indigenous peoples and communities to utilise a valuable resource. ..

• .. Proper protection will enable indigenous peoples to own and control traditional knowledge. This ownership and control will include the ability to protect secret and sacred aspects of traditional knowledge. It will also enable indigenous peoples to engage in local national and international economies in a commercially viable manner, if that is what communities’ desire. Bruceanthro (talk) 13:05, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

• (Pg 18) It is important to recognise that much of the focus has been on protecting indigenous peoples from the misappropriation and misuse of traditional knowledge without the free, prior and informed consent of the traditional knowledge owners...However, the desire to protect traditional knowledge also includes the desire to recognise ownership and control, which creates an opportunity for indigenous peoples and communities to utilise a valuable resource....

• Proper protection will enable indigenous peoples to own and control traditional knowledge. This ownership and control will include the ability to protect secret and sacred aspects of traditional knowledge. It will also enable indigenous peoples to engage in local national and international economies in a commercially viable manner, if that is what communities’ desire...

• The protection of traditional knowledge can act as both a sword and a shield ..

• It is generally the indigenous community collectively, as distinct from the individual, who own the rights to traditional knowledge. It may be a section of the community or in certain instances, a particular person sanctioned by the community that is able to speak for or make decisions in relation to a particular instance of traditional knowledge. Hence, the role of the community is central in this regard.

• The operation of customary law within an indigenous community is significant in shifting the focus of protection away from dominant legal systems, such as intellectual property, to a system based in or upon indigenous legal systems.

Recommendations:

The Permanent Forum should commission a study, under its mandate to prepare and disseminate information, in order to determine whether there ought to be a shift in the focus on the protection of indigenous traditional knowledge away from intellectual property law to protection via customary law, and if so, how this should occur. The study should consider how indigenous traditional knowledge could be protected at an international level by utilising customary law, including the extent to which it should be

UNGA20071002:

Page 2:

The General Assembly:

Recognizing the urgent need to respect and promote the inherent rights of indigenous peoples which derive from their political, economic and social structures and from their cultures, spiritual traditions, histories and philosophies, especially their rights to their lands, territories and resources,

Recognizing also the urgent need to respect and promote the rights of indigenous peoples affirmed in treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements with States,

Page 3:

Recognizing and reaffirming that indigenous individuals are entitled without discrimination to all human rights recognized in international law, and that indigenous peoples possess collective rights which are indispensable for their existence, well-being and integral development as peoples,

Solemnly proclaims the following United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a standard of achievement to be pursued in a spirit of partnership and mutual respect:

Page 5:

Article 11

1. Indigenous peoples have the right to practise and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs. This includes the right to maintain, protect and develop the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures, such as archaeological and historical sites, artefacts, designs, ceremonies, technologies and visual and performing arts and literature.

2. States shall provide redress through effective mechanisms, which may include restitution, developed in conjunction with indigenous peoples, with respect to their cultural, intellectual, religious and spiritual property taken without their free, prior and informed consent or in violation of their laws, traditions and customs.

Page 7:

Article 24

1. Indigenous peoples have the right to their traditional medicines and to maintain their health practices, including the conservation of their vital medicinal plants, animals and minerals. Indigenous individuals also have the right to access, without any discrimination, to all social and health services.

2. Indigenous individuals have an equal right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. States shall take the necessary steps with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of this right.

Article 31

1. Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.

2. In conjunction with indigenous peoples, States shall take effective measures to recognize and protect the exercise of these rights.

WIPO20010400

Page 70

NEW ZEALAND - THE TREATY OF WAITANGI The claims brought by Maori under the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand place TK-related questions within a unique context. This treaty, signed in 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and Maori, provides inter alia for the full exclusive and undisturbed possession by Maori of “all their treasures or treasured possessions” (taonga). Maori believe that the New Zealand Government has not honored all treaty obligations, and in 1975, the Waitangi Tribunal was established to hear claims under the treaty. One such claim, launched in 1991, relates to the ownership and control of Maori knowledge, traditions, culture, flora and fauna. This is the 262nd claim brought by Maori under the treaty and is colloquially referred to as “Wai 262.” For Maori, one of the desired outcomes of the Wai 262 claim would be the development and implementation of a legal framework which recognizes and protects TK and other cultural and intellectual property rights of Maori. Whilst the Tribunal’s findings are not binding upon the New Zealand Government, they have proven to be effective in influencing political and judicial change in support of Maori rights. The text of the Treaty is available at <http:/ /www.govt.nz/nz_info/treaty.

Page 74

AUSTRALIA: BULUN BULUN AND MILPURRURRU V. R AND T TEXTILES PTY LTD., 1998 This case arose out of the importation and sale in Australia of printed clothing fabric which infringed the copyright of the Aboriginal artist, Mr. John Bulun Bulun, in his work “Magpie Geese and Water Lillies at the Waterhole”. The applicants were Mr. Bulun Bulun and Mr. George Milpurrurru, both members of the Ganalbingu people. Mr. Bulun Bulun sued as legal owner of the copyright in the painting and sought remedies for infringement under the Australian Copyright Act, 1968. Mr. Milpurrurru brought the proceedings in his own name and as a representative of the Ganalbingu, claiming that they were the equitable owners of the copyright subsisting in the painting. The respondents admitted to infringement of Mr. Bulun Bulun’s copyright and consented to permanent injunctions against future infringement. In its defense to Mr. Milpurruru’s actions, the respondent pleaded that as Mr. Bulun Bulun’s claim had been satisfied, it was unnecessary to consider the question of the equitable ownership of the copyright. Mr. Milpurrurru sought to continue the action as a test case on the communal IPRs of indigenous Australian people. The principal questions for the court to address were whether the communal interests of traditional Aboriginal owners in cultural artworks, recognized under Aboriginal law, created binding legal or equitable obligations on persons outside the relevant Aboriginal community. The assertion by the Ganalbingu of rights in equity depended upon there being a trust impressed upon expressions of ritual knowledge, such as the art work in question. The court considered there to be no evidence of an express or implied trust created in respect of Mr. Bulun Bulun’s art. However, in an extensive obiter dictum, the court was prepared to impose fiduciary obligations upon Mr. Bulun Bulun, as a tribal artist, to his people. These were said to arise from the trust and confidence placed in him by his people that his artistic creativity would be exercised to preserve the integrity of the law, custom, culture and ritual knowledge of the Ganalbingu. The court concluded that this finding did not treat the law and custom of the Ganalbingu as part of the Australian legal system, rather it treated these matters as part of the factual matrix,characterizing the relationship as one of mutual trust and confidence from which fiduciary obligations arose. However, in dismissing the action of Mr. Milpurrurru, the court ruled that the rights of the Ganalbingu were confined to a right in personam against Mr. Bulun Bulun to enforce his copyright in works against third party infringers. As Mr. Bulun Bulun had successfully enforced his copyright, there was no occasion for the intervention of equity to provide any additional remedy to the beneficiaries of the fiduciary relationship.

Page 76:

NEW ZEALAND – MAORI AND THE PATENT SYSTEM Certain Maori are working closely with the Cancer Genetics Research Team at the University of Otago, Dunedin, to find a cure for familial gastric cancer. An informant explained that she and her extended Maori family (whanau) have entered into a legal partnership with the Research Team to identify the relevant mutant gene, develop a test to identify carriers and screen, counsel and treat family members. The approximately 12 000 Maori involved in this project have provided the Research Team with relevant genealogical and medical information and have established a trust, the Kimihauora Trust. One aspect of the partnership between the Trust and the Research Team is that any patent rights obtained in respect of the processes for identifying the gene or testing carriers would be jointly owned. Any resultant financial benefits would go towards further research. The Kimihauora Trust receives extensive support and assistance from the New Zealand Gastroenterologists Association and the New Zealand Health Research Council.

Page 92:

South Africa: In South Africa, draft legislation on the Protection and Promotion of South African Indigenous Knowledges has been prepared. This legislation refers inter alia to the relationship between the protection of indigenous knowledge (IK) and South African IP law; the establishment of a Regulatory Authority on Indigenous Knowledges of South Africa; the protection of IK against various unauthorized acts; Collective Community Administration Agencies to represent the rights of communities; the establishment of a Directorate of Indigenous Knowledges within the Department of Trade and Industry; and, the creation and maintenance of a Registry of IK.

Bruceanthro (talk) 13:59, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

MISCELLANEOUS

A United Nations special rappoteur (Michael Dodson) has reported that with any nations', corporations', or persons' formal acknowledgement of indigenous law and custom, there is an associated, necessary acknowledgement of the indigenous intellectual property upon which those laws and customs have been founded [refer here to Special Rappoteur Dodson's report].

The particular indigneous intellectual property rights and responsiblities any individual person actually held is determined within their own customs and laws, the exercise and enjoyment of which is a fundamental human right recognised and proclaimed within a number of international charters and declarations (see further detail below)

Indigenous specialists, non-indigenous specialists, national agencies and international agencies have on a number of occasions, participated in conferences and workshops convened to address indigenous intellectual property concerns and issues. Bruceanthro (talk) 05:22, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Australia Museum summary of intellectual property issues: Aboriginal stories —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bruceanthro (talk • contribs) 00:00, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Aboriginal Mythology

BERN19940000

Myths contain what are believed to be significant truths, expressed in a variety of settings. These range from stories and comments directed at children, information about everyday life, and occasions for entertainment and drama, to circumstances of the most secret-sacred import.

Aboriginal culture relied upon an oral transmission, supplemented with material representations, art, and graphic designs, music, and dramatic enactments. In any one region levels of participation hinged on territorial affiliation, age and ritual status and gender

A mythic map of Australia would show thousands of characters, varying in their importance, but all in some way connected with the land. Some emerged at their specific sites and stayed spiritually in that vicinity. Others came from somewhere else and went somewhere else.

Many were shape changing, transformed from or into human beings or natural species, or into natural features such as rocks, but all left something of their spiritual essence at the places noted in their stories..

'Myth' has been called a 'charter for action'. That is most evident and least ambigious in the sphere of religion. Myths spoken or sung, represent the verbal coreand verbal framework of traditional religious belief and practice... in regard to social behaviour, myths include bad examples along with good examples . .(partly because of the dramatic process .. raising in listeners questions of whether and how a bad example is resolved in a story, and how it is handled by narrators and listners..

Issues of meaning and explanation are inseperable form myth ..

Myth is concerned with the past, with origins, but in relation to the present and the future in particular contexts. It is a selective history. Even the most conservative .. secret-sacred is not immune to change..

One intriguing feature is the mixture of diversity and similarity in myths across the entire continent .. Howerver, current changes are more far-reaching than ever before:writing, tape recording, videos, computers, and the increasing scale of communication between formerly different traditions have implications for new styles of oral transmission.

Bruceanthro (talk) 01:49, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

RADC19260000

Widely seperated parts of Australia.. share a 'belief' in a huge serpent [or snake?] that lives in pools and waterholes, associated and sometimes identified with the rainbow. Stated purpose of the paper/note is to bring together information about this single (?) myth and it's distribution.

DIMENSIONS

NATURE:

i. supernatural watersnake that drowns people ii. a brightly coloured rainbow that stops rain iii. a rainbow of vomit depositing crystals in water pools iii. a being that is both the rainbow and a combined fish and snake that lives in the deepest waterholes, when visible as a rainbow, is passing from one waterhole to another iv. a serpent like creature that lives in deep waterholes, burrowing into the river bank, descended from black streak in the milkyway v. huge, winged serpent vi. totemic being, to which whole sections of groups, and whole orders of 'things' in the world may be affiliated

POWERS: i. can point bone at a distance, and place bone/stone/flint within a person, revealing itself undulating across the surface of the water in twilight, then causing illness and death if bone not removed, granting powers if the bone etc is removed and survives ii. can plug rainfall made by enemies iii. can shatter scrubs and mountains and slaughter human beings iv. den is revealed by rainbows, teaches clever men new songs for corroborrees - magic power of changing size from a few inches to large proportion, able to encourage snakes and adders to bite people v. may be associated with quartz crystals, which may, in turn, hold powers vi. afflicts people with all the sores or wounds that can't be explained, and attacks females especially, who pine away and die, or misscarry vii. under the control of men of the rain totem, and through its powers, these men are able to make rain viii. 'increasing' rain, through ceremonial dance

NAMES, PLACES,

Andrenjinyi Pennefather River, Queensland

Bunyip Western Victoria

Kajura Ingarda Tribe, Western Australia

Kanmare: Boulia District of Queensland

Kurreah: Yualai of NSW

Neitee & Yeutta: Bakanji of Darling River

Numereji: Kakadu, Northern Territory

Targan: Brisbane, Queensland

Takkan: Kabi tribe of Queensland

Tulloun: Mitakoodi, Queenland

Myndie: Melbourne

Wanamangura: Talainji WA

Walu: Kariera, WA

Wawi: Wirujari tribe, NewSouth Wales

Wollunqua: Warramunga

Wogal: Perth

Bruceanthro (talk) 13:21, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

DIXO19961200:

GENERALIZATIONS:

"All Aboriginal groups have legends describing how their Dreamtime ancestors moved across the present-day territory. Sometimes these dreaming tracks go into and out of the territories of all neighbouring groups, sometimes they are heavily biased towards neighbours in certain direction(s). Detailed local studies of dreaming tracks is an important research topic but not one that concerns me here. I am instead interested in legends which state that a particular group of ancestors and/or creator beings came from a certain general direction."

DIMENSION- MYTHOLOGIGIZING(PROCESS)

There have been a number of recent studies of the process of 'mythologization', in particular how modern Aboriginal groups have created a variety of types of story, centred on a figure named 'Captain Cook', which reinterpret - and sometimes merge - stories Aborigines have been told, by Europeans, as a means of describing and explaining their post-contact history. (See Rose 1984, 1988; Maddock 1988; Beckett 1994; and Dixon 1983:1-3, 88-9).

DIXON, R.M.W 1983 Searching for Aboriginal Languages: Memoirs of a Field Worker. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press.

ROSE, D.B. 1984. The Saga of Captain Cook: Morality in Aboriginal and European Law. Australian Aboriginal Studies 2:24-39

ROSE, D.B. 1988. Jesus and the Dingo. In N. Loos (ed), Aboriginal Australians and Christian Missions, pp 361-75. Australian Association for the Study of Religions

MADDOCK, K. 1988. Myth, History and a Sense of Oneself. In J.R. Beckett (ed), Past and Present: The Construction of Aboriginality, pp 11-30. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

BECKETT, J. 1994. Aboriginal Histories, Aboriginal Myths: an Introduction. Oceania 65:97-115

DIMENSION - REGARDING ANCESTERAL ORIGINS:

FINDINGS/CONCLUSIONS:

"examples of Aboriginal legend which clearly do - or which quite possible may - relate to historical fact"

"It is certainly the case that many legends have some historical basis but it is equally clear that others lack this. Generally, some actual event from the past is elaborated and interpreted for religious and social purposes, but a number of legends may be pure fiction without any basis in fact. This must apply to origin legends which specify that creators, or the first people, came up from the earth or down from the sky; and it will apply for some legends that specify movement over the surface of the earth. We most definitely cannot assume that any legendary direction of origin must correlate with language movement and linguistic relationship. But each such legend is worthy of the most careful consideration, to see whether it suggests a hypothesis of relationship that can be confirmed or denied by close examination of grammatical and lexical materials."

"we have investigated a number of cases where an Aboriginal legend states that people came from an inland direction. In most such cases, this correlates with what is known concerning close linguistic links; in no case is it contrary to the known facts of genetic relationships between languages. All of the groups whose legends state that they came from across the sea lack a close genetic link with any geographically-close modern neighbour. This may interrelate, at least partially, with the idea of a coastal colonisation (if not at the first colonisation, perhaps at a later stage); see Bowdler, 1977."

ANNOTATED REFS - GENERAL

1906GENN:
(VAN GENNEP, A. 1906. Mythes et Legendes d'Australie. Paris.)

Van Gennep (1906; translation 1975:200) characterised Australian traditional narratives as 'at one and the same time fragments of a catechism, a liturgical manual, a history of civilisation, a geography textbook, and to a much smaller extent a manual of cosmography'.

HIATT, L. 1975. (Editor) Australian Aboriginal Mythology. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies

Legends have a social function, helping to justify the received ordering of daily life (cf. Hiatt, 1975, Introduction). Typically, some historical events may be related in such a way that they serve a social purpose - of forming ideas and regulating behaviour - in the modern-day world

ANNOTATED REFS - SPECIFIC EGS:

NSW

Banjalang

LIVINGSTONE, H. 1892. Appendix (A), A Short Grammar and Vocabulary of the Dialect Spoken by the Minyug People, on the North-east Coast of New South Wales. In J. Fraser (ed). An Australian Language as Spoken by the Awabakal..., by L.E. Threlkeld. Sydney: Government Printer.

(The earliest published version of contemporary Banjalang myth is by Livingstone (1892:27))

SHARPE, M. 1985. Bundjalung Settlement and Migration. Aboriginal History 9:101-24.

(Margaret Sharpe (1985:106ff) mentions a Bandjalang myth, still current today, about how the people first came to Australia)

Bruceanthro (talk) 12:50, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

MORR19950400:

Mythology would be included in what this articles labels 'Aboriginal stories' which are pg 68 "perceived by the dominant culture as being 'folklore'"

Dimensions this author concentrates on include:

i. 'antiquity':"Aboriginal culture is the oldest knowncontinous culture in the world and to have been in existence for so lon.."

ii. 'degree of strength and depth of wisdom": [above] "does not represent 'survival' but rhat demonstrates strength and wisdom of the deepest kind, Tha manner in which this wisdom is transferred is through 'story' (substitute myth]

iii. 'stories' aka 'oral accounts' aka 'oral tradition' have an 'authenticity' dimension within customary lawand/or tradition

Dimension: Wisdom!

'themes' : a dominant theme throughout the stories is the importance of developing good relationships within a community, and with surrounding communities

pg 71: "Aboriginal people learned from their stories that a society must not be human-centred but rather land[resource] centred, otherwise they forget their source and purpose...humans are prone to exploitative behaviour if not constanctly reminded they are interconnected with the rest of creation, that they as individuals are only temporal in time, and past and future generations must be included in their perception of their purpose in life" —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bruceanthro (talk • contribs) 15:40, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

"..the wisdom lies in the Land. People come and go but the Land and stories about the Land stay. This is a widom that takes lifetimes of listening, observing and experiencing to fully appreciate. .. Aboriginal people .. walkthe Land and obtain a vast amount of knowledge from what they see, hear and experience...

..To appreciate this non-literate library, it must be appreciated that Aboriginals learn and perceivethe world in a very different way ..because the Aboriginal 'reality' is dictated by vastly different concepts and values from those of westerners....by looking at certain trees, rocks and other topography the Aboriginal parent is able to explain social behaviour to the child. So a seemingly ordinary tree with no significant archaeological markingsmay be to the people an important tree:

Page 72:

"There is a deep understanding of human nature and the environment in this ancient wisdom that cannot be perceived by Westerners ..

"..sites ,, hold many 'feelings' ,, which can not be described in physical terms, These are subtle feelings that resonate through the bodies of these people, To have areas under threat ..sends an urgency into their sense of being and the air that surrounds them, It is only when talking and being with these people that these 'feelings' can truly be appreciated. This is all associated with the intangible reality of these people .."

Page 77:

Gallarrwuy Yunupingu stated at the First Aboriginal Spirituality conference:

"Just because there'sa lot of white people in Sydney it doesn't mean the land has lost it's Dreaming. The spirits of the ancestors are still there working with us."

Page78:

..this rhetoric elucidates the Aboriginal reality and the people's role as aides in assisting the Land to continue its Dreaming, a concept ..beyond the understanding of Westerners .. However .. to honour its international obligations then the oral traditionof the traditional custodians .. must be given due 'regard' ...Bruceanthro (talk) 23:17, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

MORR19940000

Oral literature: - difficult to convey to non-Aboriginal peoples? -- contains information on how to live in the world as an intricately interconnected entity .. as opposed to the non-Aboriginal material about how to survive as a discrete entity.

Western literature is ego based, but Aboriginal oral literature has no place for egos.. and this aspect of Aboriginal literature is damaged/destroyed in the effort to translate/write from one form into another

In the act of reading, a western person brings a culturally constructed reading strategy to the interpretation of the text, and to tell a story for in this form requires translation .. including standard/agreed uses of English grammer etc

An Aboriginal story/telling needs listeners to bring background philosophy and knowledge to fuylly understand a text which might otherwise seem illogical and disconnected .. and outside of its oral context.. the text looses its depth of feeling and meaning

Most contentious are Aboriginal stories first told orally, then reinterpreted and retold by people outside its orginal telling .. a story seperated from its roots in the landscape/ its context is changed in its very nature .. Topography and social structure are integral ingredients to Aboriginal interpretative strategy .. as are human contact and interaction between the story teller and the audience .. conveying not only content, but information about relationships and dignity .. similarly such interaction mitigate inherent dangers of misinterpretation.. whereby, face to face, discrepencies can be cleared up and social bonds created in the telling

Becuase oral literature, as told by a storyteller, conveys so much that is social . it is considered a lynpin for the effective transmission of Aboriginal culture's into the future, keeping Aboriginal culture's viable

The maintenance of oral literature/ storytelling itself is problematic .. for if the story is demaged by its removal from its roots and context and it's origional 'telling', its feeling and deeper meanings .. this story can spin off away from the storytellers .. and do more damage than good .. An instancing of this is the non-Aboriginal editing of Aboriginal spiritual stories reducing them to childrens stories .. reducing them to charicature of the original .. without the reader being aware of the editor's role in this, without providing the audience with the opportunity to be exposed to the original words, told in their context by a storyteller.. Told in their appropriate social and physical context Aboriginal stories are as sophisticated as any literature produced anywhere.

Bruceanthro (talk) 01:26, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

RUMS19940000

ANNOTATION:

This article concerns its self, first and foremost, with the extent to which Aboriginal peoples are conscious of history being made, and are actively engaged in 'making' history in their 'myth-making'.

Presenting a dimension of mythology that has at one end those that have a highly unself-conscious, mythical social consciousness largely denying individual human agency in determining the social order they are born into, versus at the other end a highly self-conscious, historical social consciousness acknowledging and almost celebrating the role of individual human agency in influencing and even reforming social order

Rumsey uses the term 'modes of consciousness', and in a footnote refuses to engage in debate in the extent to which the 'stories' generated by either 'mode of consciousness' may be accurate or true .. comparing instead the different ways of speaking, looking, telling, and understanding the world .. perhaps questioning a the apparent international ranking of Aust. Aboriginal peoples as highly 'mythical' rather than 'historical', and recommending a different portrayal?

Stehlow, Stanner, Sharp, Myers are all identified as ethnographers who have portrayed Australian Aboriginal peoples as NOT having a well developed historical consciousness (ie effectively marking this as a taxonomic dimension distinguishing Australian Aboriginal peoples from themselves/ their modes of consciousness (including it might be added, search for god/truth!)

The article appears to respond to suggestions that Australian Aboriginal peoples, or their Dreamings at least, are very stable, conservative and largely removed from more immediate history and historical events.

[Perhaps this debate might be included in discussion about the antiquity of Aboriginal myths?]

ANNOTATING OTHERS:

LEVI-STRAUS, C. 1966. The Savage Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press:

"..agree with Levi-Strauss, that what they have, or had, were elaborate systems of social and natural classification which were capable of absorbing contingent events in such a way as to neutralize their particularity--i.e., that they were what Levi-Strauss called 'cold societies' as opposed to the 'hot' ones of the modern West.

"marriage) is the abstract, logical structure of oppositions among its categories (Eaglehawk and Crow, Tree- Creeper and Bat, etc.) and their supposed relations of homology to social categories such as the moieties, etc. For him, what Strehlow and Stanner had seen as essential to Aboriginal cosmology--its groundedness in a totemic landscape--was a lesser aspect of Aboriginal culture: a means for inserting irrationality, in its dual aspect of logical contingence and emotional turbulence, into rationality.

Classificatory systems thus allow the incorporation of history, even and particularly that which might be thought to defy the system. For make no mistake: the totemic myths which solemnly relate futile incidents and sentimentalize over particular places are comparable to minor, lesser history: that of the dimmest chroniclers.

Those same [Australian Aboriginal] societies, whose social organization and marriage rules require the efforts of mathematicians for their interpretation, and whose cosmology astonishes philosophers, recognize no break in the continuity between the lofty theorizing to which they devote themselves in those domains and a history which is that not of a Burckhardt or a Spengler, but of a Lenotre and a La Force. (Levi-Strauss 1966:243-40).

MYERS, E 1986. Pintubi Country, Pintubi Self. Washington: Smithsonian Institution 1986.

Fred Myers, for example, in a formulation which is quite consistent with Stanner's (1963:143-4; cf. also Sharp 1974), speaks of the Pintubi 'erasure of the historical', and says that:

"The Dreaming...provides a moral authority lying outside the individual will and outside human creation....although the Dreaming as an ordering of the cosmos is presumably a product of historical events, such an origin is denied.

These human creations are objectified-- thrust out--into principles or precedents for the immediate world....Consequently, current action is not understood as the result of human alliances, creations, and choices, but is seen as imposed by an embracing, cosmic order"

Thus, in Turner's terms, the dreaming would seem to be a quintessentially 'mythic' (as opposed to 'historical') form of consciousness, as it apparently mystifies human agency and provides what he would consider to be 'an unself-conscious projection of structures of the existing social order as the framework for events that logically transcend the limits of that order', the forms of that social order assuming 'fantastic form as the products ofsuperhuman deeds'

Bruceanthro (talk) 21:49, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

WATS19940000

Storytelling puts a powerful educational and socialisation tool in the hands of those who tell the stories. It adds an entirelynew dimension to the lives, the relationships, and the processes of communication of those to tell stories, and those who listen, 'live' or 'experience' stories.

Characteristics of stories, include escaping beyond, characters of stories get judged, message wrapped up in a way that will be most openly and readily received, contain hopes, dreams and fears, parables have been used extensively and effectively, the receiver of message is able to remain anonymous .. talking to people, reprimanding, empathisizing, apologising can only be done through story telling, with the direct commands encased and disguised, because culprits in the audience retain dignity and respect because no body else knows to message has been directed

Story telling is self-contained.. chose story, format, timing, place, audience, message .. simply by one's choice of words, emotions and mood can be trigger, audience can be effected ..mix this with body language and voice.. it's a kind of magic .. whether film, ballet, theatre etc

Bruceanthro (talk) 00:49, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

YENG19790000

Murinbata

The myths and rituals of the xxxx have been famously described as mirroring, and being animated by a general xxxx philosophy of life which sees life as a "joyous thing with maggots at it's centre" (cited from Stanner)

Bruceanthro (talk) 14:31, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

Bibliography

Berndt, RM ; Berndt, CH (1989) The speaking land. Penguin, assisted by the Literature Board of the Australia

Bozic,S; Marshall, A (1972) Aboriginal Myths. Gold Star Publications

Mountford, C.P (1985) The Dreamtime Book: Australian Aboriginal Myths, Louis Braille Productions

Radcliffe-Brown, A.R (1926) The Rainbow-Serpent Myth of Australia. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great …

Reed, A.W (1999) Aboriginal Myths, Legends and Fables

Robinson, R(1966) Aboriginal Myths and Legends, Sun Books

Sheils, H (1975) Australian Aboriginal Studies

Stanner, W.E.H Religion, Totemism and Symbolism

Smith, W.R (2003) Myths and Legends of the Australian Aborigines

Swain, T (1993) A place for strangers, Cambridge

Yengoyan, A.A ( 1979) Economy, Society, and Myth in Aboriginal Australia - Annual Review of Anthropology, 1979 - Annual Reviews

Bruceanthro (talk) 14:14, 9 December 2007 (UTC)