Bibi Barba, Turlough Guerin FAIA GAICD (CEO LNSW), Melanie Tyas (NLN National Landcare Facilitator) and Maxine Cooper (Chair ACT Landcare) came together to celebrate the conclusion of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge (GRATK Treaty) with the visiting Director General of WIPO, Mr Daren Tang, on 15 August 2024 at Australia’s Parliament House. 

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong, and Australia’s Ambassador for First Nations People, Mr Justin Mohamed attended and spoke at the celebrations. 

After 25 years of negotiation, the GRATK Treaty is a groundbreaking and sensational outcome, and establishes a new form of legal recognition for Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge in the international intellectual property system. NLN was thrilled to celebrate this huge milestone and significant step forward in better respecting and recognising First Nations millennia of innovation in the Intellectual Property system.