Who Owns, Controls Indigenous Designs?

Hey folks! Last week I spoke with Megan Kamerick from New Mexico Business Weekly about Native fashion - and she just published her article, "Who owns, controls indigenous designs?" -
Check it out online, here's the teaser:

One story that circulates in the American Indian fashion design world involves a famous designer visiting the Institute of American Indian Arts in the 1990s and raving over some students’ creations.

The idea was collaboration, but several months later, the creations showed up on the fashion runways under the famous designer’s name.

Carole Sandoval from Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, co-chair of the clothing contest at Santa Fe Indian Market, recalls her grandmother selling a traditional dress to someone from a major department store, and seeing something very similar several months later in the store’s collection.

But Sandoval said her grandmother was flattered rather than angry.

[to read more, click here]