Consultation, Consent and Authorship in a School Exhibition
A class is mounting an exhibition for NAIDOC week in the school library. Students have gathered material from public websites, including photographs of rock art, a recording of a song from a commercial album, and a map of language groups downloaded from a university site. They have also been offered a set of family photographs by a local Elder, who says the class may use them but does not specify which ones or for how long. A student proposes including a creation story she found in an out-of-print book from 1969, arguing that it is already published so it is public. The exhibition opens in three weeks, and the principal has asked for a written statement of cultural permissions before approving it.
1. Advise the class on which items can be included as planned, which need further permission, and which should be excluded or altered. Give reasons for each category.
Read the worked answer
Sort the items by rights status and cultural sensitivity.
Can proceed, with attribution: the language-group map, if the university site permits educational reuse and the map is credited. Language mapping is also contested in places, so the class should caption it as one representation, not the definitive one, and note the source's date.
The commercial song recording needs checking. Copyright in the recording and composition is separate from cultural permission to use the song. A school exhibition may fall within an educational licence, but the class should confirm the licence terms and, if the song is culturally restricted, seek permission from the relevant custodians regardless of copyright. If it cannot be confirmed, substitute a track the class has explicit permission to use.
Rock art photographs: publication on a website does not grant reuse rights, and some images may depict sites with access restrictions. The class should seek permission from the site's managing authority and the relevant Aboriginal corporation, and should consider whether publishing exact locations is appropriate. If permission is not obtained within the timeline, use a licensed image or omit.
The Elder's photographs: the permission is too vague to rely on. The class should return with a specific list and ask which images, for what purpose, for how long, and whether captions may name people. Get it in writing, and agree how images will be removed afterwards.
The 1969 creation story should be excluded or replaced. 'Published' does not mean unrestricted: the story may be a public version that omits restricted content, or it may have been recorded without proper authority. The class should ask the relevant community whether a version may be told, and if not, describe that knowledge exists without reproducing it.
2. Draft the structure and key content of the written statement of cultural permissions the principal has requested.
Read the worked answer
The statement should be short, specific and auditable. Suggested structure:
Purpose and scope. What the exhibition is, where it will be displayed, how long it runs, and who can see it (school only, or public online).
Item register. A table with one row per item: description, source, rights holder, permission status (granted, pending, refused, not required), date obtained, and any conditions (no photography, no location details, remove after event).
Consultation record. Who was approached, when, by what means, and what they said. Name the Elder and any Aboriginal corporation or land council contacted, with their agreement to be named.
Conditions and restrictions. List every condition attached to any item, e.g. a photograph not to be captioned with a person's name, or a story not to be recorded. State how each will be enforced.
Authorship and acknowledgement. Explain that the class curated but did not author the cultural content; credit custodians and sources; state that the students' interpretive text is their own work and is distinguishable from community material.
Review and removal. Who reviews before opening, what happens if permission is withdrawn, and how items will be taken down.
Unresolved items. Be explicit about anything still pending and the fallback if permission does not arrive.
The principal needs to see that unresolved items have a plan, not that everything is settled. A statement that hides uncertainty is worse than one that names it.