Indigenous Peoples Essay

Indigenous people and groups have been increasingly been granted and recognized in their rights and independence in regards to their history, culture and rights within their respective countries. The natural result of this new freedom and recognition is the concept of cultural nationalism where there are those within these groups that have legally and morally asserted rights to their history and culture and anything related to their culture. Although it is understandable for these groups to assert their newly granted rights, the assertion of some of these groups that they own all use, reference and scholarly discussion of their culture is contrary to the freedom of expression that in large part is the reason that the plight of such groups was discussed and exposed in related publications and discussions. In response to such cultural nationalism, there are various rights that scholars must acknowledge and comply in their review and discussion of such cultures. First, there are legal intellectual property rights that must be recognized just as any group’s or business’ intellectual property rights. The existing legal system should provide guidelines for the scholars. Second, this movement should not result in a financial requirement for a scholar to study, review and assert opinions in regards to such cultures. Consequently, although scholars should comply with appropriate legal restrictions and treat such cultural nationalism assertions with respect, this movement should not result in loss of scholar’s freedom of expression which may include a differing opinion then what the leaders of a culture may assert.