Traditional cultural knowledge from indigenous communities has long been treated as being in the public domain, all over the world. Objects created by indigenous communities often hold sacred and spiritual importance, yet existing Anglo-American copyright law lacks consideration for these cultural values, and legally these artefacts are deemed to be in the public domain.
Read MoreI love pretty much anything GLAM related, and the National Digital Forum is no exception. This year’s NDF was my second time there and I wasn’t disappointed. My biggest take-away this year was around the need for continuous professional development.
Read More“Museums are curiosity machines” said Seb Chan, and judging by how popular this comment was on twitter, National Digital Forum attendees very much agreed. So how can this curiosity, of the staff and the visitors, be fostered? Let’s work our way through this.
Read MoreFrom Moana Jackson and David Garneau’s opening keynotes to Ngāti Whātua o Ōrākei leader Taiaha Hawke’s closing words, this year’s Museums Australasia was the first time I had seen a conference bookended by indigenous challenges for positive change. Moana’s reference to author Patricia Grace’s statement that ‘books are dangerous’ was a key point as he calmly took us through his thoughts on how those with ontological power are the masters of all things. Through this thought he asserted that museums can also be dangerous; who are they naming and who are they silencing?
Read MoreTalking with friends after the Four Waves of Feminism conference, we attempted to articulate our feelings about the day. Nina best summed it up for me with: “It wasn’t what I was expecting, but I don’t know what I was expecting.” When Courtney used the metaphor of the four waves of feminism not being consecutive but instead being waves that came in, crashed, receded and left traces of themselves; it was the closest interpretation to what I expected the day to be like.
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