AUTHORITY
Identify the people or community with cultural authority to guide the work.
FIRST NATIONS · ICIP & CULTURAL PROTOCOL
Cultural knowledge is not
simply content.
For First Nations material, cultural authority can extend beyond individual copyright or possession. WAIIVPA aims to work in ways that respect Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, community authority and appropriate cultural protocols.
Future WAIIVPA archive pages may contain names, voices or images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have died. Appropriate warnings and community-specific access conditions should be applied where relevant.
WHAT ICIP MEANS HERE
Rights can live with a community, not only with an individual file owner.
In Australia, the term Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) is commonly used for First Nations peoples' rights and interests in traditional knowledge, cultural heritage and cultural expressions passed through generations.
Australian copyright and other laws do not comprehensively answer every ICIP question. WAIIVPA therefore uses protocol-based cultural care in addition to ordinary legal rights checks.
WAIIVPA ICIP CHECK
Before we record, transform or publish.
CONSENT
Seek informed, meaningful and continuing agreement appropriate to the project.
RESTRICTION
Ask whether knowledge, places, names, images or practices should be limited or not recorded at all.
ATTRIBUTION
Agree how custodians, artists, knowledge holders and communities should be acknowledged.
INTEGRITY
Avoid alteration, decontextualisation or reconstruction that misrepresents cultural meaning.
RETURN
Agree how copies, access, benefit, review and long-term stewardship return value to community.
First Nations leadership and self-determination
Projects involving First Nations artists, communities, stories or cultural material should not be designed solely from outside the community. WAIIVPA aims to identify cultural authority early and support community participation in decisions about purpose, representation, access and stewardship.
Secret, sacred, gendered or otherwise restricted knowledge
Some knowledge should not be recorded, digitised, reconstructed or displayed. Technical capability is not permission. If appropriate authority cannot be established, the safer course may be to stop, restrict or redesign the activity.
AI and digital transformation
WAIIVPA does not treat publicly visible First Nations material as automatically available for AI generation, style imitation, dataset creation or reconstruction. Any such use should be considered through cultural authority, purpose, provenance, attribution, access and potential harm.
Commercial, promotional and festival use
A community's agreement to participate in documentation does not automatically extend to advertising, merchandising, sponsorship campaigns, festival promotion or other secondary uses. These uses may require fresh discussion and agreement.
Consent can require an ongoing relationship
Where cultural authority is collective or circumstances change over time, a one-off release form may be insufficient. Review points, access conditions and continuing consultation can be built into a project from the beginning.
Raising an ICIP concern
Concerns about attribution, cultural authority, inappropriate access, reconstruction or representation can be sent to info@waich.org.au. Where appropriate, WAIIVPA should pause or restrict material while the concern is considered with relevant people.
NATIONAL REFERENCE
VIEW THE PROTOCOLS ↗