Protection of Yei Tribe’s Sago Food Processing as Traditional Knowledge: An Archive-Based Effort on Digitization

Communal intellectual property on traditional knowledge, in the South Papua region, has not been adequately identified. This research focuses on the importance of digitized archives for the protection and preservation of traditional knowledge on the processing of Yei tribal sago snacks. This socio-legal study uses an ethnographic study approach. The results found that the Yei tribe’s sago food processing practices fulfil the elements for protection as traditional knowledge including methods or processes, skills, and/or sago processing skills as traditional food even though they have not been recorded and registered in the communal intellectual property database on traditional knowledge. In this era of globalization, there is a need for documentation and publication based on digitized archives for the entire practice of processing sago snacks so as to produce digital copies available on the internet or other devices to ensure accessibility, sustainability and preservation of traditional knowledge that can later be passed on to the next generation.