Tsosie at ALA Conference
Rebecca Tsosie presented at the Cultural Heritage and Living Culture Conference in Washington DC. In November the American Library Association’s Office of Information Technology Policy hosted a thoroughly stimulating conference on Cultural Heritage and Living Culture: Defining the U.S. Library Position on Access and Protection of Traditional Cultural Expression. The conference aimed to discuss and debate the present and historical role of archives, libraries, and museums in preserving and providing access to the “traditional cultural expressions” (TCE) of indigenous people and traditional communities worldwide. The conference further aimed to begin forming ALA positions on TCE, including how the rights of native people in their own TCE interact with conventional Western concepts and codifications of intellectual property. ALA will be able to carry forth these positions to discussions with global organizations such as UNESCO and the United Nation’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). WIPO’s Intergovermental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge, and Folklore (IGC), addresses protections for TCE, which affect and are affected by international copyright treaties and U.S. copyright law.

Tsosie at ITCA Conference
In October, Professor Tsosie presented at the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona’s conference “Future Directions of Tribal Health Research in Arizona” on Intellectual Property and Cultural Property.