Sarawak cultural heritage takes centre stage at WIPO symposium

CHINA: Sarawak’s traditional cultural heritage gained an international perspective through the participation of Pungu Borneo founder Lucille Awen Jonat at a World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) symposium on protecting and promoting traditional cultural expressions.

Awen, who represented Malaysia and Sarawak, took part in the International Symposium on the Protection and Promotion of Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCEs) in Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province from Sept 7 to 9 as a delegate, speaker and panellist.

She was the only Malaysian and Sarawakian participant in those capacities at the three-day symposium, where she spoke on “Leveraging IP for Economic Development While Preserving Traditional Cultural Expressions” and participated in a panel examining international intellectual property and traditional cultural expressions from the perspective of makers.

Her contribution brought an artisan and cultural practitioner’s perspective to discussions involving intellectual property policy, particularly around the relationship between traditional knowledge, contemporary products, cultural custodianship and economic opportunities.

For Sarawak, the discussions are particularly relevant given the state’s extensive traditions of indigenous craft, weaving, beadwork, basketry, textiles, cultural jewellery, music and other forms of traditional cultural expression.

Awen’s participation provided a Malaysian and Sarawakian perspective within the wider international discussion, while the symposium offered an opportunity to examine approaches from different countries to cultural heritage protection, intellectual property and creative economic development.

Co-hosted by WIPO and the National Copyright Administrations of China, the three-day symposium brought together nearly 400 Chinese and international participants from more than 30 countries and regions.

Discussions focused on legal and institutional frameworks for protecting traditional cultural expressions, the use of intellectual property to support economic development and practical approaches to applying IP systems to traditional culture.

Participants also examined how traditional cultural expressions could be protected from misuse while remaining living and evolving parts of contemporary society, with the programme including field visits to local cultural initiatives in Fuzhou.