Cultural Property and Indigenous Cartography: Conceptualizing a Comprehensive Property Claim for Indigenous Peoples

The legal framework governing the use and protection of Indigenous cultural property is a combination of international cultural heritage law, and domestic and international intellectual property law. The combination of these regimes creates an intricate, yet incomplete legal framework, where Indigenous peoples are primarily forced to protect intangibles under intellectual property laws that often leave native communities without legal protection or redress for claims of compensation.

This paper argues that the current legal framework for adjudicating cultural property claims can be antithetical to protecting Indigenous interests because it fails to acknowledge that a profound relationship exists between tangible and intangible cultural property for Indigenous peoples. It suggests that a comprehensive property right that embodies both tangible and intangible interests associated traditional territories may better reflect Indigenous values. It concludes that international cultural heritage and contemporary human rights law have begun to recognize a comprehensive property right for Indigenous peoples, and that Indigenous cartography can help substantiate such claims in the future.