The International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management is present the 4th Annual Indigenous Film & Arts Festival in Denver, Colorado from October 9-14, 2007. Our theme this year is Celebrating Identity through Art, Dance, Music & Sports. The Festival will open on October 9th with an art preview and artist's reception at the Native American Trading Company, featuring the works of Bunky EchoHawk. This year the Festival includes film screenings, filmmaker appearances and live performances at various Denver venues including the Denver Indian Center, Museo de las Americas, Starz FilmCenter, the University of Denver (in partnership with the Native Student Alliance), and Dazzle Jazz Club. Click here to view the festival's preliminary film selections.

A daily festival schedule with show times and ticket prices will be posted next month.

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European Commission Launches New Handbook on Geographical Indications

European Commission has published on its website a new handbook on Geographical Indications. Geographical indications (GIs) are forms of identification which identify a product as originating in the territory of a particular country, or a region or locality in that country. For a GI product, its reputation for quality or any other characteristic is intimately linked to its geographical origin.

Geographical Indications are a type of intellectual property. They are very important in the EU, which has a rich history of local and specialist agricultural production and many famous products closely linked to their place of origin: think of Parma Ham, Roquefort cheese or Champagne.

Wider protection for Geographical Indications from around the world is a key goal for the EU in the ongoing WTO Doha trade negotiations. We think the EU interests and approaches are consistent with the protection of indigenous rights.

The European Commission's handbook sets out the current worldwide situation with regard to the existence and protection of GIs.

Geographical Indications are usually geographical names. But non-geographical names can also be protected if they are linked to a particular place. The most famous example of such a GI is “Feta”, which is not a place in Greece but is so closely connected to Greece as to be identified as an inherently Greek product.

There are three major conditions for the recognition of a sign as a geographical indication:

• it relates to a good although, in some countries, services are also included;
• these goods must originate from a defined area;
• the goods must have qualities, reputations or other characteristics which are clearly linked to the geographical origin of goods.

Why do Geographical Indications matter?

Over the past centuries, European countries have taken the lead in identifying and protecting their Geographical Indications. Many famous GIs today have origins in developed countries, for example, Cognac, Roquefort cheese, Napa Valley wines, Scotch whisky, Sherry, Parmigiano Reggiano, Teruel and Parma hams, Tuscany olive oil, and so on.

However, it would be wrong to conclude that GIs are an instrument for developed countries only. GIs can protect and preserve intellectual property related to traditional cultures, geographical diversity and production methods. All nations have a wide range of local products that correspond to the concept of a GI - think of Basmati rice or Darjeeling tea - but only a few are already known as such or protected globally.

Better protection of GIs can be a useful contribution to increasing income, in particular in rural areas. It also encourages quality production and can promote the development of tourism. GIs grant protection to a community and not to individual right holders.

Since consumers are often ready to pay more for GIs products, people from outside the region may be tempted to appropriate the GI for their own products. This not only misleads consumers, but it also dilute the GI value as well as discourages producers from making investment decisions or launching expensive marketing campaigns.

Consequently gains resulting from marketing GIs need to be accompanied by prevention of their loss of value through copying, or free riding. This requires intense and costly legal efforts that small rural communities can rarely afford. This is why GIs need an enhanced protection. This is something the EU has been pushing for in the ongoing Doha WTO trade negotiations. The 2 parts of the handbook can be accessed at: http://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/sectoral/intell_property/pr270607_en.htm.

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BLM Final Vegetation Treatments Using Herbicides Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement

The Final Vegetation Treatments Using Herbicides on Bureau of Land Management Lands in 17 Western States Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PElS) and the Vegetation Treatments on Bureau of Land Management Lands in 17 Western States Programmatic Environmental Report (PER) is available for review and comment. Together these documents assess, on a National level, the BLM's use of herbicides and describe the environmental effects of using non-herbicide treatment methods, including fire and mechanical, manual, and biological controls.

The Programmatic EIS has two primary objectives:

• Determine which herbicide active ingredients are available for use on public lands in the western U.S., including Alaska, to improve the agency’s ability to control hazardous fuels and unwanted vegetation. In addition to the herbicides currently approved for use, additional active ingredients are being considered for use by the BLM in order to address emerging weed problems associated with public lands, such as downy brome (cheatgrass) and invasive aquatic species.
• In consultation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Marine Fisheries Service, develop a state-of-the-science human health and ecological risk assessment methodology. This methodology would serve as the initial standard for assessing human health and ecological risk for herbicides that may become available for use in the future.

The FEIS contains subsistence analysis required under Section 801(a) of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA).

The Final Programmatic EIS assesses five alternative approaches to the use of herbicides to treat vegetation on public lands, details the expected impacts and benefits from the BLM's use of herbicides, and provides analysis to determine which herbicide active ingredients will be approved for use on public lands administered by the BLM in the western United States, including Alaska.

Written comments on the Final PElS will be accepted until July 30, 2007. Click here to access the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement.

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IIIRM Mokomokai Paper Included in New Zealand Electronic Text Centre Collection

Mokomokai: Commercialization and Desacralization, a paper authored by Christian Palmer and Mervyn Tano has been selected for inclusion in the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre. The Centre, part of Victoria University of Wellington, digitizes significant New Zealand and Pacific Island texts. All the texts in the NZETC online collection are freely available and fully searchable (www.nzetc.org ). The Centre also layer "topic maps" over the digital resources so that names of people, places and texts which are mentioned in the texts are automatically presented as links to topic pages about those people, places or texts.

One of the texts which has been repeatedly recommended to the Centre for digitisation is Major-General Robley's "Moko, or Maori Tattooing".  Tthe book contains a wealth of information not only about moko but, through a critical reading of Robley's essay, about early contact between Pakeha and Maori culture.

The Centre also provides as much contextual material and informed commentary as possible. For example, for the Robley book the Centre already has several works by Elsdon Best online which discuss moko and will be digitising a number of relevant articles from the Journal of the Polynesian Society and Journal of the Anthropological Institute.  The Centre is also gathering  as much material as possible specifically from a Maori perspective and will be linking to articles in Te Ao Hou, digitising an article from Te Iwi o Aotearoa, and adding the text of the 1854 Te Rangikaheke manuscript "Mo Te Taingna Moko" to the collection along with D.R. Simmons English translation for which he has kindly given permission. Contemporary commentaries such as Christina Thompson's 2006 essay "Smoked Heads" and Dr. Te Awekotuku's published work on Moko will also be added. Our paper was chosen for section because it provides a modern scholarly consideration of the  trade in tattooed heads.

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Mark Calamia, IIIRM associate and assistant professor of anthropology at the University of North Texas, is in Fiji for the summer working with the Pacific Blue Foundation to examine the role of traditional knowledge in maintaining fish stocks and biodiversity in sacred fisheries in Fiji. Larry Lepley, IIIRM senior remote sensing associate, is using state-of-the-art technology at USA Environmental to perform UXO site surveys around the country. One such technology, the Multi-Sensor, Towed-Array System was field tested at the Bad Lands Bombing Range on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota several years ago.. Aroha Mead, former IIIRM fellow, is organizing a "Brand Pacific" conference early next year to profile various cultural heritage/intellectual property rights initiatives and get more discussions going about indigenous peoples cultural heritage and IPR protection. The conference will be a follow-up to the Pacific Genes & Life Patents work.

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Diné Policy Institute Conference: Exploring, Explaining, Understanding Sustainable Development on the Navajo Nation

On August 22-23, 2007, the Diné Policy Institute of the Diné College is sponsoring a Conference: Exploring, Explaining, Understanding Sustainable Development on the Navajo Nation. The Conference has four goals:

1. To examine traditional concepts of political sustainability and self-governance
2. To consider business and tourism development as culturally relevant and sustainable development practices on the Navajo Nation
3. To discuss viable culturally grounded economic sustainability policies for the Navajo Nation
4. To identify traditional concepts of environmental sustainability.

The Conference will be held at the Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona. Early registration (before July 30, 2007) is $60. On-site registration is $75. There is no charge for senior citizens 65 and older, students, and children under 12.  For more information contact Moroni Benally at +1 928-724-6945 or mtbenally@dinecollege.edu.

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Little Children Are Sacred: Report of the Northern Territory Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse

The Report of the Northern Territory Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse and the resultant actions taken by the government of Australia have been much in the news in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. There has not been much coverage of the situation in the news media in the United States.

Background

On August 8, 2006, the Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse was appointed by the Chief Minister on 8 August 2006.  It was headed by former Northern Territory Director of Public Prosecutions Rex Wild QC and Pat Anderson, a Alyawarr woman with many years' experience of working in Indigenous health.

The inquiry was asked to:

• Study how and why Aboriginal children were being abused, focusing on unreported cases;
• Identify problems with the way government responds to child abuse and attempts to protect children;
• Look at how government departments and other agencies can better work together to protect and help children;
• Look at how the government can better support and educate Aboriginal communities to prevent child sexual abuse.

The Inquiry gathered and reviewed a vast amount of information that was shaped into 97 recommendations for the Chief Minister. Underlying the Inquiry's findings was the common view that sexual abuse of Aboriginal children is happening largely because of the breakdown of Aboriginal culture and society.

Important points made by the Inquiry included:

• Child sexual abuse is serious, widespread and often unreported.
• Most Aboriginal people are willing and committed to solving problems and helping their children. They are also eager to better educate themselves.
• Aboriginal people are not the only victims and not the only perpetrators of sexual abuse.
• Much of the violence and sexual abuse occurring in Territory communities is a reflection of past, current and continuing social problems which have developed over many decades.
• The combined effects of poor health, alcohol and drug abuse, unemployment, gambling, pornography, poor education and housing, and a general loss of identity and control have contributed to violence and to sexual abuse in many forms.
• Existing government programs to help Aboriginal people break the cycle of poverty and violence need to work better. There is not enough coordination and communication between government departments and agencies, and this is causing a breakdown in services and poor crisis intervention.
• Improvements in health and social services are desperately needed.
• Programs need to have enough funds and resources and be a long-term commitment.

The full report can be found at: http://www.nt.gov.au/dcm/inquirysaac/pdf/bipacsa_final_report.pdf.

Responses to the Report

The Australian government's response to the report came without warning – nor apparently any discussion with the Northern Territory government. Details of the plan were “high level” and, despite the haste, further clarity has not emerged. The measures announced at this time included:

• Creating a taskforce of eminent Australians to oversee the implementation of the measures.
• Introducing widespread alcohol restrictions on Northern Territory Aboriginal land for six months – including bans on alcohol sale, possession, transportation, consumption and monitoring of take-away sales across the Northern Territory.
• Medical examinations of all Indigenous children in the Northern Territory under the age of 16.
• Welfare reforms that will see 50 per cent of welfare payments to parents quarantined (in the affected areas) for food and other essentials, an obligation that will follow parents wherever they may go.
• Enforcing school attendance by linking children's attendance to income support and family assistance payments for all families living on Aboriginal land. These measures will also including ensuring that meals are provided for children at school with parents paying for the meals.
• Assuming control, by the Australian government, of Aboriginal townships through five-year leases to ensure improvements in property and public housing.
• Initiating an intensive on-ground clean up of communities to make them safer and healthier by marshalling local workforces through Work for the Dole arrangements.
• Scrapping the permit system for common areas and road corridors on Aboriginal lands.
• Banning the possession of x-rated pornography in the proscribed areas, and checking publicly funded computers for evidence of the storage of pornography.

None of the above measures announced by Prime Minister Howard are, however, to be found in the strategies recommended by the Anderson/Wild report. The reasons for this policy disconnect are unclear – although there has been some speculation in the press about the government's response being more about electioneering or using it as a “Trojan horse” for other policy agendas, particularly in relation to land rights. For more on the disconnect between the Inquiry's recommendations and the government response, please see Ian Anderson's commentary. A scathing indictment of the Federal Government's use of the latest report for blatant political opportunism, please see Jennifer Martiniello's commentary. She is a writer and academic of Arrernte, Chinese and Anglo descent. She is a former Deputy Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Arts Board of the Australia Council for the Arts, and a current member of the Advisory Board of the Australian Centre for Indigenous History at the Australia National University. Noel Pearson, in an article in The Australian argues that Government initiatives are on the right track to stop the suffering in the outback

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Longhouse Media/Native Lens Wins Seattle Arts Award

Student filmmakers from the Longhouse Media Program at the Indigenous Film & Arts Festival at the Starz FilmCenter.

The Longhouse Media/Native Lens Program operated by the Swinomish Tribal Community has been selected by the City of Seattle as a recipient of the 2007 Mayor's Arts Awards. The Institute was pleased to nominate Longhouse Media for the award to recognize its accomplishments in introducing native youth to media as an art form and vehicle for self-expression. Under the skillful direction of Tracy Rector, the Native Lens Program helps native youth from the Pacific Northwest Tribes develop the skills necessary to tell their own stories through digital media making.

Student filmmakers from the Longhouse Media program have participated in the Indigenous Film & Arts Festival for the past two years and we look forward to seeing them again this year. Their participation inspired a group of American Indian students from Denver 's Merrill Middle School to make their own animated film, “The Bear Paw,” which premiered at the 2006 Festival. Films from the Longhouse Media/Native Lens program will be featured in the Festival's school program and in our evening screenings.

The Festival runs from October 9-14, 2007. On October 10th we will screen “Teachings of the Tree People” at the Denver Indian Center . Co-producer Tracy Rector, who also sits on the IFAF Advisory Board, will introduce the film and be available for questions from the audience.

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Tulalip Tribes Film Festival

The Tulalip (too-lay-lip) Film Festival is a celebration of filmmaking and filmmakers, which will feature Coast Salish films. The two-week long event includes a filmmaking workshop, viewings of numerous films and digital videos, and a series of awards in various categories.

The Tulalip Film Festival the product of the co-operation of Tulalip Tribes, Northwest Indian College, and numerous private sponsors and donors. This festival is envisioned as an opportunity for Coast Salish and other filmmakers and artists of all ages to gain education and exposure. While the focus of the festival is Coast Salish themes, festival organizers will be accepting selected submissions in any genre, and by any filmmakers.

The 2007 Festival will be held in Tulalip, Washington at the Tulalip Campus of Northwest Indian College and The Tulalip Boys & Girls Club.

For more information, please see the Festival website or send an e-mail to: tffgeneral@nwic.edu.

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Indigenous Film & Arts Festival Internships Available

Are you interested in film? Filmmaking? Does the idea of hanging out and talking shop with indigenous filmmakers from all over the world sound like your idea of an evening well-spent? Well then, you might want to consider signing up for an internship with the International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management, the organizer of the Indigenous Film & Arts Festival.

Volunteering as an Institute intern will offer you a great opportunity to experience a broad perspective on all aspects of the film festival by working closely with the festival staff. These internships afford you an excellent opportunity to acquire the necessary organizational, communication, management, and other skills required to organize and put on an international film festival. The internships require a commitment of 10 to 15 hours per week and a set working schedule for you to be in the Institute offices.