A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN AND AUSTRALIAN LAW: INDIGENOUS CULTURAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

Hugh Turnbull, University of Oregon

Abstract

Cultural appropriation and discrimination of American and Australian indigenous populations has continued since settlement. Since ‘colonisation’, both nations have failed to acknowledge the full extent of damage caused, leaving their Indigenous populaces severely affected. Relatively recently however, both nations have begun the process of reconciliation and reparation for the damage. This has been instituted through various statutory regimes and judicial precedent establishing the first adequate protection of ‘cultural property’.

However, due to the ‘Eurocentric’ basis of property, the dominant view of the ‘self’ in law and the crippling disadvantage of the Indigenous populaces, the cycle of ‘cultural appropriation’ continues and the protection of cultural property is undermined. Furthermore, to achieve ‘full protection’ a complete overhaul of the established legal systems is needed; an impossible feat. Therefore, a sui generis regime is required in the US & Australia (possibly at an international level) in order to give the full recognition Indigenous populaces deserve.