Organised by Lindsey Drury, Research Area 5: "Building Digital Communities". A lecture by Dr. Jennifer Carolina Gómez Menjívar, Fellow in RA 5.

Mayan weaving practices are globally recognized for their intricacy and aesthetic value. With Guatemala's deepening investment into tourism after 1996--just as the information superhighway began to accelerate the speed and ease with which to trade ideas and designs--the iconography central to this millenary tradition crossed more borders than ever before. Importantly, the designs were not confined to the homes of buyers and collectors, but rather increasingly seen on fashion runways and even in department stores. Jennifer Carolina Gómez Menjívar's project as a "Temporal Communities" Fellow, examines how Mayan women weavers have used cyberspace to respond and challenge such appropriating practices. The three questions that guide her inquiry are: how do Mayan weavers engage with cyberspace and the intellectual property laws of Guatemala? How do they exercise their communication rights to then establish Indigenous intellectual property rights? What is the future of Indigenous intellectual property laws in Guatemala?