Thanks to Samara Harp for pointing me to this Government of Canada website that introduces the broad ideas of Indigenous Intellectual Property, and makes an interesting read in itself: https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/108.nsf/eng/00004.html
The site includes links to a document (in English) titled “Introduction to Intellectual Property Rights and the Protection of Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Expressions in Canada”
Remarkably, it also presents the same document in translation into several Indigenous languages. The Plains Cree in particular is beautifully translated, by someone who is clearly both a master speaker, and a master writer of SRO. In Cree, the document is titled ê-pîkiskwâtamihk omâmitonêyihcikêwasinahikan kâtipêyihtamihk êkwa ta-kanawêyihtahkik nistam-iyiniw kiskêyihtamowin êkwa opimâcihowi-wâpahtamowina ôta kâ-kanâtahk.
I’m not sure who is responsible for the Plains Cree translation, but it follows SRO spelling with great care (so every word can be looked up in the dictionary), and sets an exemplary standard for government translation projects. To whoever did this awesome work: hay-hay! We’re awfully proud of you!
(I thought about replicating the Cree document here in whole – then recognized the irony of stealing a document about intellectual property rights! I’ll add it here if and when I receive permission, so the document can be used with our click-in-text lookup tool!)
