Jane Anderson is a genre-defying public intellectual who has worked for and with Indigenous communities for over 25 years. A settler/accomplice, legal philosopher, decolonial action consultant, data scientist, knowledge protector and professor of Museum Studies, Anthropology and Law at NYU, Jane works in many modalities to make differently visible and intervene in the systems that built colonial infrastructures.

Bringing to bear her background in intellectual property law, she builds and wields digital tools and legal instruments to return cultural authority back to the communities from whom it was taken, specifically negotiating the return of cultural materials (heritage, belongings, plants, data) taken from Indigenous communities.

In 2010, Jane founded Local Contexts to support Indigenous communities in managing their intellectual and cultural property, cultural heritage, environmental data, and genetic resources within digital environments.  Jane is a frequent public speaker and regularly conducts trainings on Indigenous intellectual and cultural property, cultural appropriation, and decolonial practice.  Over the last decade she has worked extensively with foundations and government agencies including Mellon, Luce, Ford,. Rockefeller, Moore and Minderoo, securing grants in excess of $7M.

The author of seminal texts on colonial authorship and copyright, intellectual property and provenance and over 50 articles, Jane has also produced the documentaries Awasəwehlαwə́lətinα wikəwαmok – They Returned Home and E Kore Au E Ngaro - The Connection Remains.