Open-knowledge communities, the public domain and public policies protecting the global sharing of information and resources seek to counter the last decade of IP maximalization. Such movements aim to rebalance ‘public’ interests within IP discourse. Historically, dispossession of Indigenous persons in settler communities was concomitant with their exclusion from ‘the public’. This has significant consequences for Indigenous peoples struggling to regain control over knowledge resources today. This article considers the imaginary inclusions that underlie Anglo-Australian intellectual property law and considers problems with redressing past injustice by defining Indigenous difference in terms of a cultural exception within intellectual property law.