It’s been quite an experience visiting New Zealand. Always fascinated by this place and its people. I like learning about the Māori – Mātauranga Māori. I like how their language Te Reo is embeded in everyday life. Māori culture and traditional knowledge is considered New Zealand taonga (treasure) so it is a significant intellectual property asset.
I understand New Zealand has specific legal provisions in its IP laws that protect mātauranga Māori. Some of which, according to IPONZ, helps “prevent the registration of trade marks or granting of patents that would be considered offensive by Māori or contrary to Māori values”.
Papua New Guinea’s trademark law is quite outdated and could do with some updating. I always say that we could learn a lot from how other countries treat the rights of indigenous people in so far as IP rights are concerned so that we can recognize and protect ours in a way relevant to us.
But Papua New Guinea has has an even bigger challenge if it were to consider how to incorporate the values, treasures and identities of its people in its IP laws. Papua New Guinea has 800+ distinct languages and cultures!
Having said that, I’ve found that some of the Māori words are quite similar to my own Motuan language. I recall my earlier post on numbers. This is an image of the pataka (raised storehouse) called the Te Puawai o Te Arawa – the Flower of Te Arawa. A raised platform in my Motuan language is called “patapata”!
haere rā
Māori – Mātauranga Māori
