Catherine Saez, Intellectual Property Watch; Indigenous Knowledge Misappropriation: The Case Of The Zia Sun Symbol Explained At WIPO
"The three panellists mentioned the importance of the United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
[pdf], and in particular Article 31, which asserts the right of
indigenous peoples to maintain, control, protect and develop their
cultural heritage, TK and TCEs, and the right to maintain, control,
protect and develop their intellectual property over their cultural
heritage, TK, and TCEs.
Commenting on the Zia case, June Lorenzo, a lawyer advocating in
tribal and domestic courts and legislative and international human
rights bodies, said in the late 1890s, Zia was at a very vulnerable
point, as many other tribes were. A number of archaeologists came and
took “what they could because they thought we were going to disappear as
a civilisation,” she said, noting that the stolen pot was repatriated
in 2000 or 2002.
In 1925, when the Zia symbol was adopted by the state of New Mexico,
the Zia were not even considered as citizens of the United States, she
said, and could not vote. “So the idea that they should have objected to
this [ the use of the symbol] in 1925 … is just absurd.”"
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