Tradigital knowledge? Indigenous video games, intellectual property law and the protection of traditional knowledge

Using intellectual property law and video games made by, for, and with Indigenous communities, this thesis examines the challenges and opportunities for the protection of Indigenous traditional knowledges in digital spaces. Existing scholarship addresses the inability the various categories of intellectual property (IP) law (particularly copyright) as they currently exist, to provide adequate protection for Indigenous traditional knowledges. Digital media poses a similar challenge to IP law. These two categories of “challenges”—sometimes dichotomized as the ‘very old’ and the ‘very new’—are often discussed in opposition to one another, the former associated with demands for increased protections and limited access, the latter with demands for increased access to information and diminished IP protection This dichotomy of ‘old’ and ‘new’ is likely based on an assumed incompatibility between Indigenous traditional knowledge and technological innovation. By situating Indigenous video games and the traditional knowledges they hold within an historical context of continual development and (ex)change, this thesis demonstrates that change and innovation do not contradict tradition as the discourse often suggests. The video games presented in this thesis emerge from traditional, local, and historical contexts, and demonstrate the ways in which forms of traditional knowledge such as storytelling, mythology, song and language, exist digitally. Through the lens of Indigenously determined game design, this research argues for the validity of what I have termed ‘tradigital’ knowledges — that is, the traditional knowledge in and of digital environments. It suggests that meaningful protection extends beyond the bounds of Western law and must include the support of intergenerational knowledge-exchange, skill-sharing and capacity-building which ensure the continued relevance, responsiveness and resilience of traditional knowledges