Indigenous people and the communication rights agenda : a global perspective

The chapter discusses indigenous people's involvement in current debates on communication rights and the use of information and communication technologies for development (ICT 4D). In the context of a so-called information society the chapter argues that communication rights are to be regarded as a new frontier for indigenous people's civil rights struggle in a global knowledge society, particularly when looking at the political and cultural complexities between indigenous and non-indigenous ways of conceiving the protection and dissemination of tangible and intangible cultural material. The analysis is grounded in the emergence of indigenous movements across the world in the last decade, which arise simultaneously along many other social movements appropriating new technologies and socio-technical systems of communication, participation and collaboration. The chapter draws on current international literature to examine the role of ICTs in development and community participation. It points out the need for culturally appropriate legal frameworks to support the full incorporation of indigenous cultural producers into the new national and transnational creative economies where the conditions for a different regime that identifies and protects particular forms of indigenous copyright and intellectual property based on traditional knowledge and collective ownership are considered.