Tag: indigenous

Reading Indigenous Intellectual Property

I’m still on med leave from my interesting job, so I figured I could at least read some interesting work-related books. First up: Indigenous Intellectual Property.

Book cover. Indigenous Intellectual Property: An Interrupted Intergenerational Conversation, by Val Napoleon, Rebecca Johnson, Richard Overstall, and Debra McKenzie. There is an illustration of a red octopus in a contemporary west coast Indigenous formline style.

I finished chapter 1, and Val Napoleon’s framing of Indigenous intellectual property law is rearranging my brain. Here she is referring to laws as a set of knowledge about solving conflicts and problems. Just plopping the reader in the center of a vision about self-determined people supported by a vibrant legal system. Made my little anarchist heart wish for… laws?

Photo of text from a book: We know that enforcement on its own is never adequate to ensuring societal lawfulness or adherence to law, whether intellectual property law or any other area of law. It is necessary to expand the thinking of Indigenous law beyond the limiting notions of "law as enforcement" and "law as rules" towards "law as lived" to empower people to see themselves as legal agents and so act accordingly. Again, one of the future key pedagogical questions is how Indigenous peoples internalize the law from their legal order so that they can take part in its legal problem solving as effective, self-determining legal actors. Law, in its best sense, creates and enables healthy citizenries and communities.

Eternal meme.

Meme of Mr Bean copying test answers from a neighbour. Mr Bean is labeled "anarchists", the neighbour is labeled "Indigenous peoples"

Seed starting, seed saving

My peppers are sprouting, Aleppo peppers from seeds I saved last year. I started growing these because the plants were facing extinction due to the war in Syria. There was a push to steward the seeds for when Syrians could return to farming them. (Also the peppers are delicious.)

I remember Cheryl Bryce talking about how war and colonization doesn’t only happen to humans, it happens to the rest of the inhabitants of the land as well. That invasive species are a form of colonization. I started growing qʷɬáʔəl (kwetlal, camas) because so many people in that podcast emphasized that settlers can and should learn to propagate Indigenous plants.

Bonus pronunciations:

It’s interesting to me that with all the complications of power dynamics and cultural appropriation, it’s so common to encourage allies to do seed keeping work. Yes, grow the seeds in your garden. Yes, save the seeds and trade them around. It isn’t only hobby gardeners who want to share seeds and cuttings and harvests. (Disclaimer that each plant has its own discussion and context.)

Now that it is seed starting season in the northern hemisphere, I wonder who is growing Palestinian plants, to keep the seeds for when Palestinians can grow them again. This episode of Seeds and Their People from a few years ago is an interview with a Palestinian seed keeper in Philadelphia, growing molokhia (jute), kusa (a summer squash), and zaatar (a savoury herb), and it includes links to buy seeds from the True Love Seeds network of small farmers.