The Wire

Big fashion should be thinking about how their products affect indigenous cultures.  The Chanel boomerang is only one aspect of a wider problem facing indigenous people.

Protecting Indigenous cultural heritage is about indigenous identity and the preservation of customary practices. The recent introduction of the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Exploitation of Indigenous Culture) Bill 2017   is a step in the right direction with much academic calls for sui generis laws and greater community say in the drafting of laws and policies.

One of the central concerns is that there is misunderstanding about appropriate dealings with cultural knowledge and art which generates much ire and offense to indigenous artists and communities.