Rimmer, Matthew --- "Preface: the legacy of David Unaipon" [2015] ELECD 1505; in Rimmer, Matthew (ed), "Indigenous Intellectual Property" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015) xxi

Book Title: Indigenous Intellectual Property

Editor(s): Rimmer, Matthew

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781955895

Section Title: Preface: the legacy of David Unaipon

Author(s): Rimmer, Matthew

Number of pages: 8

Extract:

Preface: the legacy of David Unaipon
Matthew Rimmer



There has been a long history of debate in respect of the use and abuse of Indigenous
intellectual property. The story of David Unaipon ­ storyteller, inventor, scientist,
preacher and leader ­ is important to recall in this narrative.
David Unaipon was the author of the 1930 work The Myths and Legends of
Australian Aborigines ­ later published as Legendary Tales of the Australian
Aborigines.1 In the Preface to the work, Unaipon discussed his ambitions for the work:

My race ­ the aborigines of Australia ­ has a vast tradition of legends, myths and folk-law
stories. These, which they delight in telling to the younger members of the tribe, have been
handed down orally for thousands of years. In fact, all tribal law and customs are, first of all,
told to the children of the tribe in the form of stories, just as the white Australian mother first
instructs her children with nursery stories: Of course the mothers and the old men, in telling
these stories, drag them out to a great length, putting in every detail, with much gesture and
acting, but in writing them down for our white friends I have used the simplest form of
expression, in order that neither the meaning nor the `atmosphere' may be lost.2

Unaipon observed: `As a full-blooded member of my race I think I may claim to be the
first ­ but, I hope not the last ­ to produce an enduring record of our customs, ...