First Nations Intellectual and Cultural Property (ICIP) Statement

Aperim Pty Ltd (ABN 46150699737; ACN 150699737) is incorporated in New South Wales, Australia and operates the aicial brand. In this statement, “aicial” refers to that brand; “we”, “us” and “our” refer to Aperim Pty Ltd; and “you” refers to a reader of this statement, including a First Nations individual, community or organisation we consult or work with.

This statement applies to aicial’s website and marketing, to our fixed-scope social-media audits, monthly reporting retainers and benchmark studies, and, once available, to our planned self-serve software service. It applies whenever our work touches First Nations content, knowledge, cultural material or data, whether we are sourcing or using it directly or a customer is doing so through aicial’s tooling.

aicial’s sitewide Acknowledgement of Country reads: “aicial is built on the unceded traditional lands of the Cabrogal clan of the Darug Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.”

This statement gives that acknowledgement practical effect. Recognising Country is the starting point; the commitments set out below are how we intend to act on it across our products, services and marketing.

In this statement, “ICIP” means Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property: First Nations peoples’ rights to their own knowledge systems, cultural practices, language, performance, and visual and literary arts, and to data about First Nations peoples, communities and Country. ICIP exists whether that knowledge, material or data is held physically or digitally, or by a third party such as a social media platform, and whether or not it is protected under conventional Australian intellectual property law.

This includes, for example:

• traditional knowledge, including ecological, medicinal and cultural knowledge;
• cultural practices, ceremonies and protocols;
• language, oral tradition and story;
• performance, visual art, literary art, design and music;
• the image, likeness, voice and other personal or cultural representations of a First Nations individual or community; and
• data about First Nations peoples, communities and Country, including where that data is aggregated, digital, or held by a third party such as a social media platform.

Unlike conventional copyright or trade mark rights, ICIP is generally held collectively rather than by a single author, and it does not expire. In this statement, “First Nations” means the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, reflecting where aicial is based and the Acknowledgement of Country above. Where our work touches the cultural or intellectual property of an Indigenous people or community outside Australia, we apply the same consent, attribution and benefit-sharing standard set out in this statement.

ICIP is grounded in First Nations peoples’ right to self-determination. Article 31 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) affirms that Indigenous peoples have “the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over [their] cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.”

UNDRIP is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007; Australia formally announced its support for it in 2009. It is not a treaty and does not itself create obligations under Australian domestic law. We nonetheless treat Article 31 as the standard we hold ourselves to, and the commitments in this statement are how we put it into practice.

We make the following commitments wherever we source or use First Nations content, knowledge, cultural material or data directly — for example, in our own marketing, case studies or a product feature that showcases specific content:

• we will consult with the relevant First Nations individual, community or organisation before we knowingly select, feature, reproduce, publish or commercialise any First Nations content, knowledge or cultural material in aicial’s products, services or marketing;
• we will not use First Nations cultural or intellectual property without free, prior and informed consent — consent given without pressure, ahead of the use, and based on a genuine understanding of what the use involves;
• where First Nations content or knowledge is used with consent, we will provide clear attribution to its source and negotiate fair benefit-sharing with the relevant individual, community or organisation in good faith; and
• aicial’s own products — our outcome analytics, content engine, account-protection scanning, social-listening layer and deal infrastructure — will not be used to extract, scrape or commercialise First Nations cultural or intellectual property without the same free, prior and informed consent standard.

Where First Nations-related content or data reaches aicial only through routine, large-scale processing — for example, because a First Nations creator’s public post is included in a social-listening panel or benchmark dataset — we do not seek individual consultation before that processing occurs. Consistent with our Privacy Policy, that data is presented only at an aggregate level, profile-level views are limited to a customer’s own connected accounts, and we do not use it to single out, target or draw conclusions about a specific First Nations individual, community or organisation. If you are a First Nations individual, community or organisation and want content or data about you excluded from that processing, or want to raise any other concern, contact firstnations@aicial.com.

The same standard applies to how a customer uses aicial. Our Acceptable Use Policy prohibits using aicial’s services to infringe or misappropriate the intellectual property, privacy or other rights of a third party. We treat using aicial’s tooling to extract, scrape or commercialise First Nations cultural or intellectual property without free, prior and informed consent as a breach of the Acceptable Use Policy — whether or not the material would otherwise qualify as a third party’s intellectual property under Australian law — and we treat it the same way we treat any other prohibited use of aicial’s services.

If we become aware that a customer’s use of aicial appears to breach that standard, we act under the Acceptable Use Policy, which allows us to suspend or terminate the customer’s access to aicial’s services, in whole or in part.

Aperim Pty Ltd, which operates aicial, is an early-stage company. Accountability for the commitments in this statement currently sits with Aperim Pty Ltd’s leadership rather than a separate or formally constituted body.

As aicial grows, we commit to formalising ICIP governance, including seeking First Nations advisory input, and to updating this statement to describe that structure once it exists.

Contact firstnations@aicial.com to raise an ICIP concern, request consultation before we use First Nations content, knowledge, cultural material or data, or flag how such content or data has been handled by aicial or by a customer using aicial’s tooling. Please include enough detail for us to understand and investigate the concern.

We acknowledge and investigate concerns raised under this statement within a reasonable period and tell you what we found and what, if anything, we are doing about it.

We may update this statement to reflect changes to our services, our practices, or how we approach ICIP as aicial grows. The version, effective date and last-reviewed date shown at the top identify the current statement. We publish the updated statement on our website and, where a change is material, provide additional notice through the service or by email before the change takes effect.

For ICIP questions, consultation requests, or concerns about how First Nations content, knowledge, cultural material or data has been handled, contact:

Aperim Pty Ltd, which operates the aicial brand
ABN 46150699737
ACN 150699737
New South Wales, Australia
Email: firstnations@aicial.com