Intellectual Rights

Kangaroo Jack reveals the widespread acceptance of Indigenous knowledge theft by corporate bio-prospectors.

Check out my latest article "Intellectual Property" to find out about neocolonialism on the last frontier of Indigenous reality. As I write this, my children are watching an animated film called "Kangaroo Jack - Gday USA!" I am stunned to see that the theft of Indigenous knowledge is so widely accepted that it is the subject of a children's film. The heroes of the story are three American cosmetic company executives whose business is in trouble. To make money fast, they decide to go to Australia to get some ancient exotic plants from the Aborigines to make a new shampoo brand. The executives turn out to be "the chosen ones" from a prophecy in a rock painting. That prophecy is depicted drawn around (defacing) the head of an ancestral God. (How would people feel if we did the same to Jesus?) As I write, the "chosen ones" are asking the Aboriginal people to give them some exotic berries or something they can use to make their shampoo. Of course, there is no talk of financial compensation - it is assumed that the Indigenous rights to biological and pharmaceutical knowledge are up for grabs to any corporate bio-prospector who comes along. My children are six and four. How do I explain to them why the world thinks this is okay?

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