World Book and Copyright Day is celebrated every year on April 23^rd. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) organises events throughout the day to promote reading, publishing, and copyright.

This year’s theme is Indigenous Languages! Last year saw the start of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-23) and it’s one of the UN’s priorities to uphold and promote linguistic diversity and multilingualism. Learn more at UNESCO’s webpage.

We are celebrating this day to raise awareness of Indigenous culture and languages, as well as to promote the diversity of publications on Indigenous peoples’ and to raise awareness of copyright, for both creators and users.

Short history

The event was originally invented by Vicente Clavel Andres, director of Cervantes publishing house, to honour Miguel de Cervantes and initially took place during Cervantes's birthday, on the 7^th October. The first celebration of World Book Day was on 7^th October 1926.

However, the King of Spain, Alfonso XIII changed the date in 1930 to the 23^rd of April, which is the date of Cervantes’s death. Coincidentally, 23^rd of April is also the day Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega died. For this reason, UNESCO decided to choose this date in 1995 to celebrate its own World Book and Copyright Day.

Watch this short video on World Book and Copyright Day.

Resources

Here is only a small selection of resources we came across when we decided to search our digital collection. You will need VPN or sign in with your institutional credentials to access the content.

30 great myths about Shakespeare – Laurie Maguire and Emma Smith

Braiding sweetgrass for young adults – Robin Wall Kimmerer; adapted by Monique Gray Smith; illustrations by Nicole Neidhardt

Global Indigenous Media: Cultures, Poetics, and Politics – Pamela Wilson, Michelle Stewart

Indigeneity and Nation - Edited by G. N. Devy, Geoffrey V. Davis

Indigenous Peoples, Consent and Rights: Troubling Subjects - Stephen Young

Indigenous Perspectives on Sacred Natural Sites: Culture, Governance and Conservation - Edited by Jonathan Liljeblad, Bas Verschuuren

Orality and Language - Edited by G. N. Devy, Geoffrey V. Davis

Routledge Handbook of Indigenous Wellbeing - Edited by Christopher Fleming, Matthew Manning

Taiwan’s Contemporary Indigenous Peoples - Edited by Chia-yuan Huang, Daniel Davies, Dafydd Fell

The Routledge Companion to Global Indigenous History - Edited by Ann McGrath, Lynette Russell

Rethinking Copyright: History, Theory, Language - Ronan Deazley

Authors, Copyright, and Publishing in the Digital Era - Francina Cantatore

Wired Shut: Copyright and the Shape of Digital Culture - Tarleton Gillespie

Copyright law and the information society in Asia - Heath, Christopher

Rethinking Copyright for Sustainable Human Development: Higher Education and Access to Knowledge - Sileshi Bedasie Hirko

China's creative industries: copyright, social network markets and the business of culture in a digital age - Montgomery, Lucy

There are 81 results for the keyword “indigenous” on our Research Repository, check it out here.

For the term “copyright” there are 1,569 results, which you can find here.

This list is by no means exhaustive. You can do your own search for more Indigenous content as well as copyright on the University Library Catalogue Plus or on our Research Repository.