Cultural integrity
In the same way that the dispersal of Aboriginal peoples broke cultural ties to language, ritual, land and family, the ?breaking up? of art can threaten the wholeness of communities. Owners have a need to keep control over the things that they make and, through this, to maintain the integrity of their cultures.
Aboriginal artworks often embed characteristics of story and place that are unique. Stories, of course, might not exist in any permanent form - one reason why they are susceptible to unauthorised use (see 'Mechanisms for protection in Australia'). However, under Aboriginal law stories are a form of intellectual property; they are ideas that are owned by those who are specially authorised to keep and transmit them. Any republishing or commercial exploitation of the ideas may be a matter of serious legal and cultural offence. An illegally reproduced symbol or motif might involve the theft of not only a physical design, but also of part of a story. In this way, meaning might be effectively stolen. Storytelling through art is a form of cultural exchange - something that many Aboriginal artists are keen to foster. This exchange does not mean, however, that the story has been 'given up' by the teller. The ideas can be considered to be 'on loan'; they are not a free gift to be used in whatever way the receiver sees fit.
The situation is made more complicated and sensitive by the fact that many artworks incorporate secret elements in which the meaning remains undisclosed to those outside the group that owns the story. Sometimes these elements are literally concealed through the use of particular methods. For example, the dotting technique of Western Desert artists seems to have come into use as a method of hiding secret/sacred components from the probing of non-Aboriginal people (Bardon, 1991).
Another important aspect of cultural integrity is that it cannot be restricted to an individual. When individual artists represent stories of their heritage, the respect that the artworks receive is a matter of vital interest to others. Furthermore, some works are produced in partnership, or cooperatively, while others remain unsigned simply because the mark of the author is not considered appropriate. So for some Aboriginal communities, the right to extended community involvement in protection and permission is of the utmost importance. This fact does not sit comfortably with current copyright law, which only protects individuals who can be identified as authors, and licence holders.