Jane Anderson

2018 ‘Negotiating Who Owns Penobscot Culture’. Anthropology Quarterly 91(1); pp 265-302.

2017 Routledge Companion to Cultural Property with Haidy Geismar. Routledge Press: London, United Kingdom.

2017 ‘Introduction’ with Haidy Geismar. In Routledge Companion in Cultural Property Jane Anderson and Haidy Geismar (eds), Routledge Press, pp 1-37.

2017 ‘Collaborative Encounters in Digital Cultural Property: Tracing Temporal Relationships of Context and Locality’ with Maria Montenegro. In Routledge Companion in Cultural Property Jane Anderson and Haidy Geismar (eds), Routledge Press, pp 431-451.

2017 ‘Labeling Knowledge: The semiotics of immaterial cultural property and the production of new Indigenous publics’ with Justin Richland and Hannah McElgunn. In Engaging Native American Publics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Collaborative Key Paul Krotisky and Barbra Meeks (eds) Routledge Press, pp 304-337.

2015 ‘Intellectual Property and Indigenous Knowledge’.  In International Encyclopedia for Social and Behavioral Sciences, James Wright (ed), (2nd Edition), Elsevier Press, pp 769-770.

2015‘Renegotiated Relationships and New Understandings: Indigenous Protocols’ with Greg Young-ing. In Free Knowledge: Confronting the Commodification of Human Discovery Patricia Elliot and Daryl Hepting (eds) University of Regina Press, pp 180-189. 

2015 WIPO Background Brief 8: Alternative Dispute Resolution for Disputes Related to Intellectual Property and Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Cultural Expressions and Genetic Resources. World Intellectual Property Organization: Geneva, Switzerland.

2013. ‘‘Chuck a Copyright on it’: Dilemmas of Digital Return and the Possibilities for Traditional Knowledge Licenses and Labels’ with Kim Christen. Museum Anthropology Review 7, (1-2) Spring-Fall; pp 105-126.

2013. ‘Anxieties of Authorship in Colonial Archives’ in Media Authorship C. Chris and D. Gerstner (ed), Routledge Press, pp 229-246.

2012. ‘Options for the Future Protection of GRTKTCES: The Traditional Knowledge License and Labels Initiative’ Journal of the World Intellectual Property Organization 4(1); pp 73-82.

2011. ‘On Resolution | Intellectual Property and Indigenous Knowledge Disputes | Prologue’ Landscapes of Violence, 2(1), Art 4; pp 1-14.

2010. Intellectual Property and Indigenous/Traditional Knowledge: Issues Paper Centre for the Study of the Public Domain, Law Faculty, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, pp 1-70.

2010. ‘Intellectual Property Issues in Heritage Management Part Two: Legal Dimensions, Ethical Considerations, and Collaborative Research Practices’ with George Nicholas, John Welch, Joe Watkins, Rosemary Coombe, Catherine Bell, Brain Noble and Kelly Banister. Heritage Management 3(1)pp 117-147.

2010. Safeguarding Cultural Heritage and Protecting Traditional Cultural Expressions: The Management of Intellectual Property Issues and Options – A Compendium for Museums, Archives and Libraries with Molly Torsen, World Intellectual Property Organization: Geneva, Switzerland.

2009. Law, Knowledge, Culture: The Production of Indigenous Knowledge in Intellectual Property Law Edward Elgar Press: Cheltenham, United Kingdom.

2009. ‘The Politics of Global Information Sharing’ with Kathy Bowrey. Social and Legal Studies 18(4); pp 479-504.

2009. ‘(Colonial) Archives and (Copyright) Law’ Nomorepotlucks 1(4), July.

2009. ‘Intellectual Property Issues in Heritage Management: Part One – Challenges and Opportunities Relating to Appropriation, Information Access, Bioarchaeology and Cultural Tourism’ with George Nicholas, Catherine Bell, Kelly Bannister, Sven Ouzman. Heritage Management 2(2) Fall; pp 261-286.

2008. Framework for Indigenous Community Protocols, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, Australia, pp 1-37.

2006. Intellectual Property and Indigenous Knowledge: Access, Ownership and Control of Cultural Materials – Final Report with Recommendations Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, Australia, pp 1-365.

2005. Access and Control of Indigenous Knowledge in Libraries and Archives: Ownership and Future Use, The MacArthur Foundation and the American Library Association, pp 1-36.

2005. ‘The Making of Indigenous Knowledge in Intellectual Property Law in Australia’ International Journal of Cultural Property 12(3); pp 345-371.

2005. ‘Access, Authority and Ownership: Traditional Indigenous Biodiversity-related Knowledge’ Australian Indigenous Knowledge and Libraries, Martin Nakata and Marcia Langton (ed), Canberra: Australian Academic & Research Libraries, pp 72-82.

2004. ‘The Politics of Indigenous Knowledge: Australia’s Proposed Communal Moral Rights Bill’ University of New South Wales Law Journal 27(3); pp 585-605.

Forthcoming

‘Decolonial Futures of Sharing: 'Protecting Our Voice', Intellectual Property and Penobscot Language Materials’ with James Eric Francis Snr (Penobscot Nation). In Patrick Spiro, Abigail Shelton and Adrianna Link, (eds).  Translating Across Time and Space: Endangered Languages, Cultural Revitalization and the Work of History, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. In Press

“Towards the Slow Archive” with Kim Christen for Archival Science.

“Decolonizing Attribution” with Kim Christen for the Journal of Radical Librarianship.

“Copyright, Settler Colonialism and the Dispossession of Indigenous Knowledge” for For the IP/Race Anthology (Deirdre Keller, Minh-ha T. Pham, and Anjali Vats, eds.)

“From Creative Commons to Local Contexts” 

Updated July 2018 

Current News

Penobscot Nation and University of Maine sign MOU

On May 10th, 2018 an historic Memorandum of Understanding was finalized between the Penobscot Nation and the University of Maine after a decade of collaborations. The MOU addresses past research practices and collections, as well as formalizing current cultural heritage management and care processes across the university. The MOU formalizes the inclusion of Penobscot perspectives and decision-making in the future management of Penobscot tangible and intangible heritage and recognizes the Penobscot Nation as the cultural authority over Penobscot heritage. It also recognizes that the University of Maine is located on Penobscot traditional territories.  Jane Anderson worked with the Penobscot Nation to draft and negotiate the development of this agreement. The full article may be read here. Listen to an interview on the 5/15/18 on Wabanaki Windows with Jane Anderson on the MOU.

Passamaquoddy TK Labels in the Library of Congress

On June 4th the Library of Congress officially launched their use of the TK Labels. After years of collaboration, the Library will be attaching TK Labels to the select phonograph recordings in the collection of recordings from the famous Jesse Walter Fewkes Passamaquoddy Recording Collection. See the labels in use on the Library of Congress. 

Current Projects 

Local Contexts 

Local Contexts is an online platform that was developed in 2010 by Jane Anderson and Kimberly Christen (Director of Mukurtu CMS and Director of the Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation at Washington State University). The Local Contexts initiative has two objectives. Firstly, to enhance and legitimize locally based decision-making and Indigenous governance frameworks for determining ownership, access, and culturally appropriate conditions for sharing historical and contemporary collections of cultural heritage. Secondly, to promote a new classificatory, curatorial, and display paradigm and workflow for museums, libraries, and archives that hold extensive  Indigenous collections. By elevating the visibility of erased or marginalized voices from collection and exhibition practice, the Local Contexts initiative works to significantly impact how Indigenous perspectives about the management of these ethnographic collections are defined and incorporated into contemporary practice. By adding missing information and facilitating new collaborative and reciprocal relationships between Indigenous communities and cultural institutions, this project increases knowledge about how ethnographic collections should be accessed, shared, governed, circulated, used and curated within institutions and by other non-Indigenous users of this cultural content.  

Passamaquoddy Tribe, Maine

Working with Donald Soctomah, Wayne Newell and Molly Neptune Parker and the Wabanaki Cultural Center, Pleasant Point Museum and Indian Township Cultural Museum we are reinterpreting the first sound recordings of Passamaquoddy voices. These were also the first ever to include Native American voices in the United States. These 27 recordings were made on the phonograph when Jesse Walter Fewkes arrived in March 1890 in Calais Maine. Together we are putting together a historical puzzle as the recordings contain only fragments of Passamaquoddy songs and vocabulary. We are giving the songs back their Passamaquoddy names, adding important cultural knowledge not previously included in the historical record, adding Passamaquoddy TK Labels for future use and directing cultural authority for these recordings from the Library of Congress, who holds and makes available these items of digital heritage, to the Passamaquoddy community.

Penobscot Nation, Maine 

With James E Francis, Director of the Department of Cultural and Historical Preservation at the Penobscot Nation and the Penobscot Tribal Rights and Resources Protection Board we have been working on questions of access and control of Penobscot language and cultural heritage materials within institutions across the US. This has included legal research on the copyright time frames for the protection of certain language documentation materials, the production of agreements and Memorandums of Understanding between the Penobscot Nation and other parties that hold Penobscot language materials and support in the development of a Nation-wide Intellectual Property Policy. We are currently working together to develop training and education workshops for other Native American communities on intellectual property and to support tribal governance and decision making for negotiating the return of cultural heritage from museums, archives and libraries. 

Karuk Tribe, California

With Lisa Hillman, the Karuk Tribe’s Food Security Co-ordinator, we continue to work on a range of intellectual property issues facing the Tribe. This has resulted in the production of Practicing Pikyav: A Guiding Document for Collaborative Projects and Research Initiatives with the Karuk Tribe. Other work has included advice on Deeds of Gift and Transfer of Copyright documents for the Sipnuuk Digital Library. We have been working to build a unique and specific Karuk IP strategy for future research that emphasizes Karuk sovereignty over knowledge and territories.

Abbe Museum, Maine

With the Abbe Museum we are working to create decolonial strategies in the digital collection, cataloguing, archiving and circulation of Wabanaki cultural heritage held at the Abbe. This includes establishing new community processes of vetting material, adding adapted TK Labels and recognizing Wabanaki authority and sovereignty over their collections. We are collaborating on an NEH grant for this work. 

American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

With the staff at the American Folklife Center we are working to create new pathways for adding Indigenous community perspectives about the collection and circulation of valuable cultural heritage. Initially collaborating with the Passamaquoddy communities of Pleasant Point and Indian Township over the correct Passamaquoddy access conditions for their sound recordings, we are developing new workflows for the implementation of the TK Labels into the Library of Congress. This includes creating new metadata standards for MARC records, as well as ongoing templates for institutional engagement and collaboration over these kinds of special collections. 

Atlas of Living Australia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australia

With the Atlas of Living Australia and CSIRO in Australia, we are working to develop a new suite of TK Labels for traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) that allows for community protocols to be embedded within core digital infrastructure of biodiversity databases. This project includes community collaboration on the development of the new labels, as well as the development of new metadata standards within DwC for identification and transfer of labels across various digital platforms. It also includes workshops and ongoing community support for free and informed consent (FPIC) and sharing non-confidential ecological knowledge. 

Indigenous Friend App 

The Indigenous Friends App was developed by Alejandro Mayoral Baños to support Indigenous youth entering into university contexts away from their family and community support networks. Jane is working with Alejandro to protect the traditional knowledge and Indigenous methodologies used to develop this app including how these are recognized within the end-use license agreements (EULAs), and general IP and TK clauses. 

Shadow Lines

Through the colonial collecting endeavor, Native American, First Nations, Inuit, Metis and Aboriginal peoples’ lives and cultural practices were collected, documented and recorded at unprecedented levels. During this period, cultural heritage was removed from communities and detached from local knowledge systems. These early colonial collecting endeavors were haphazard and largely contingent on personalities, alliances and allegiances to individuals both in ‘the field’ and those within the institutions requesting specific kinds of Indigenous material. As a result, collections and documentation became mixed, messy and inconsistent. This is an ongoing problem for communities seeking to access their collections. This project is working to visually and digitally map collectors (anthropologists/archaeologists/others), the communities that they worked within, and where the material objects and intangible cultural material gathered from these colonial encounters now reside, including what the current institutional access conditions are for Indigenous communities. This project is getting at the reality that tribes have their cultural heritage collections in multiple institutions, and that collecting institutions can have collections from hundreds of tribes. This is a project was initially conceived with Sonya Atalay, Andrea Geyer, Amy Lonetree, and Maria Montenegro. It has expanded to include collaboration with three communities (Karuk, Penobscot and Passamaquoddy), Eugenia Kisin and students from NYU Program in Museum Studies, Department of Anthropology and Gallatin School of Individualized Study.