“I Make an Oath and Say as Follows”:  Yolngu Judicial Discourse on Sacred Art and Copyright

Riccardo Mazzola

doi:10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1135

Autores/as

Riccardo Mazzola Università degli Studi di Milano

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1135

Palabras clave:

Yolngu, ley de propiedad intelectual, malversación cultural, arte indígena

Resumen

La principal afirmación de este estudio es que hay un repertorio dinámico de conductas lingüísticas y estrategias judiciales indígenas en los casos de malversación de obras de arte yolngu (Australia) que se presentaron en juzgados australianos. El análisis de esos repertorios ayuda a esclarecer las perspectivas indígenas sobre la propiedad de arte sagrado. Este artículo –que cubre un campo casi inédito en la literatura sobre propiedad intelectual indígena– arroja luz sobre las estrategias judiciales de los Yolngu como respuesta al dilema entre el peligro de una pérdida de su identidad cultural y la posible ventaja derivada de un reconocimiento del Estado de los derechos de propiedad intelectual indígenas. Nuestro estudio se basa principalmente en las declaraciones juradas de miembros del pueblo Yolngu y de otras personas. Dichas declaraciones se realizaron durante cinco casos judiciales significativos de los años 90. Las declaraciones juradas demuestran la naturaleza dual del discurso judicial de los Yolngu sobre arte sagrado y derechos de autor, insistiendo simultáneamente en, a la vez que (implícitamente) rechazando una interpretación de las pinturas indígenas como “propiedad intelectual”.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1135

Note: This article has been updated on 27 September 2022 to include the following footnote by the author:

"While this article concerns a topic that the author took on in Mazzola (2018, ch. 5)[Indigenous Intellectual Property: A Conceptual Analysis. Milan: Franco Angeli], that topic is here recontextualized and analyzed in a deeper and more analytical way. Section 3 of this article reproduces portions (also and mostly quoting directly from judicial documents) of the historical reconstruction provided in the aforementioned chapter".

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Biografía del autor/a

Riccardo Mazzola, Università degli Studi di Milano

Post-doctoral researcher, Department of Legal Studies "Cesare Beccaria", University of Milan

ORCID: 0000-0002-4897-2103

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