Terri Janke facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Terri Janke
Terri Janke
Born	Cairns, Queensland
Nationality	Australian
Occupation	Lawyer
Known for	Indigenous intellectual property expert

Terri Janke is a well-known Indigenous Australian lawyer. She comes from the Wuthathi and Meriam groups. Terri is a top expert around the world on something called Indigenous cultural and intellectual property (ICIP). This means she helps protect the unique knowledge, stories, and art of Indigenous communities. She also leads her own law firm, Terri Janke and Company.

Early Life and Education

Terri Janke was born in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Her family has roots in the Torres Strait Islands (specifically Mer Island) and Aboriginal communities (Wuthathi people) from Cape York Peninsula in North Queensland.

She studied at the University of New South Wales and earned her law degree in 1995.

In 2019, Terri finished her PhD at the Australian National University. Her special research was about how Indigenous culture and knowledge can be protected. She called her work True Tracks: Indigenous Culture and Intellectual Property Principles for putting self-determination into Practice. She also learned how to be a company director and a mediator. In 2021, she turned her PhD research into a book called True Tracks: Respecting Indigenous Knowledge and Culture. This book helps people understand how to respect Indigenous knowledge, based on her 20 years of work.

Career Highlights

Terri Janke has worked to protect the rights of Indigenous artists. She helped with a big legal case called Milpurrurru v Indofurn. She also worked as a legal helper for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). There, she helped create a plan to protect traditional knowledge in the Pacific region.

In 2000, Terri started her own law firm, Terri Janke and Company. This firm is fully owned by Indigenous people. It is the largest and oldest Indigenous law firm in Australia. Her firm focuses on intellectual property and business law for Indigenous communities.

Terri is known as one of Australia's most important Indigenous lawyers. She is also a global expert on Indigenous cultural and intellectual property (ICIP). She has written important guides for different industries, like film, art, museums, and archives. These guides help them work respectfully with Indigenous culture.

Terri has also been a leader on many boards. She was the deputy chair of the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence. She also served on the boards of Tourism Australia, National Indigenous Television (as Chair), and the Ngalaya Indigenous Lawyers Association (as Chair). She also worked with the State Library of NSW.

Awards and Recognition

Terri Janke has received many awards for her important work:

• 2007: She was highly praised for the Aboriginal Justice Award from the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW.
• 2008: The Prime Minister of Australia invited her to a special meeting called the Australia 2020 Summit.
• 2011: She was named the NAIDOC Indigenous Person of the Year.
• 2012: She won the Australian Attorney-General's Indigenous Legal Professional of the Year award.
• 2013: She was listed as one of the 100 Women of Influence by Westpac and the Australian Financial Review.
• 2015: She was a finalist for the Telstra NSW Business Women's Awards.
• 2015: She was also a finalist for the Indigenous Business, Ethnic Business Awards.
• 2018: She was a finalist for the NSW Regional Business Awards, City of Sydney.
• 2019: She won Community Lawyer of the Year from the Women Lawyers Association of NSW.
• 2019: She was named Indigenous Business Leader of the Year at the MyBusiness Awards.
• 2020: She won the J.G. Crawford Prize at ANU for her PhD research, True Tracks.
• She was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Indigenous Writers' Prize for her book True Tracks.

Key Publications

Terri Janke has written many important guides and reports about how laws affect Indigenous people and their culture. Many of these were asked for by government and other organizations.

Books and Reports

• Janke, Terri, True Tracks: Respecting Indigenous knowledge and culture (NewSouth, 2021). This book is based on her PhD work.
• Janke, Terri, Pathways & Protocols: A filmmaker’s guide to working with Indigenous people, culture and concepts (Screen Australia, 2009). This guide helps filmmakers.
• Janke, Terri, Butterfly Song (Penguin Australia, 2005). This is a book she wrote.
• Janke, Terri, Minding Culture: Case Studies on Intellectual Property and Traditional Cultural Expressions (World Intellectual Property Organisation, 2003). This report looks at how to protect traditional culture.
• Janke, Terri, Our Culture: Our Future – Report on Australian Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights (1998). This was a very important early report on Indigenous cultural rights.

Articles and Chapters

Terri Janke has also written many articles for legal journals and chapters in other books. These writings often discuss how to protect Indigenous cultural expressions and knowledge in Australia and around the world. She writes about topics like:

• How to work ethically with Indigenous arts and records.
• How to recognize Indigenous knowledge when plants are used for new products.
• The importance of Indigenous cultural authority in the arts industry.