Archives and Museums: Balancing Protection and Preservation of Cultural Heritage

Museums, archives, libraries, anthropologists and ethnologists play an invaluable role in preserving the rich cultural heritage of our planet. By recording and making available the music, arts, knowledge and traditions of indigenous communities, such institutions help to spread a broader understanding and respect for different cultures. However, some traditional communities are beginning to voice concerns that sometimes activities by museums and cultural specialists do not take adequate account of their rights and interests; and that documenting and displaying, say, a traditional song or a tribal symbol, make them vulnerable to misappropriation.

How can museums strike a balance between the preservation and the protection of cultural documentation? And how can the wider public have greater access to the rich collections housed by archives and museums? Traditional communities and cultural institutions have begun to seek intellectual property (IP) information and advice in relation to these questions. Greater clarity on how to identify relevant IP issues and options could benefit all stakeholders. This article outlines a few of the key questions and describes WIPO activities aimed at addressing them.

The ethnographic collections of museums and other institutions often include invaluable, even unique, records of ancient traditions, lost languages and community histories, which are vital to indigenous peoples' sense of identity. The handling of secret and sacred materials within such collections can be a source of particularly acute concern. Indigenous peoples also cite numerous cases in which commercial users have exploited cultural heritage collections without seeking the consent of the relevant community, let alone acknowledging the source or sharing the commercial benefits. Some popular world music albums, such as "Return to Innocence," included samples of traditional music that had originally been recorded and made publicly available for heritage preservation purposes.

In the words of expert Henrietta Fourmille, (Centre for Indigenous History and the Arts, University of Western Australia), the crux of the problem from an indigenous perspective is that the "information collected about us is simply not owned by us."

This introduces questions about the role of IP law, policy and practice in...