What do you really need to know? An overview of the challenges associated with the management of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge by seed bank institutions

Abstract

This discussion paper reports on the outcomes of a colloquium held in Canberra on 21 June 2014 at the Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University. The University of New England ran the event in conjunction with the CRC for Remote Economic Participation. We acknowledge the Ngunnawal people as the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which the colloquium took place. The colloquium was held to discuss the challenges associated with seed banking and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and to see how those challenges could be responded to effectively, fairly and efficiently. The four questions posed to structure the discussion were: 1. Do we need to acknowledge cultural interests when biobanking seeds and using them in research? 2. Do cultural interests travel with a seed throughout such processes? 3. Can current legal mechanisms, such as intellectual property, be used to deal with cultural complexity in a scientific research setting? 4. Is traditional knowledge of seeds liable to be subjected to biopiracy?