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TREATY FOR A LIFE FORMS PATENT-FREE PACIFIC and Related Protocols
From: Aroha Te Pareake Mead
Monday, October 9, 1995

Please advise the all networks that if they are interested in pursuing cultural and intellectual property issues of indigenous peoples (eg Patent of Hagahai man from PNG) the Mataatua Declaration Association is focussed on these issues. Am sending by mail a copy of the TREATY FOR A LIFEFORMS PATENT-FREE PACIFIC AND RELATED PROTOCOLS which a group of us worked on earlier this year. Organisations are being asked to sign and promote its objectives. All signed copies to be deposited with me (address listed below) in order that an up to date list can be kept (for lobbying and educational purposes). Maori Congress, Mataatua Declaration and Te Runanga O Ngati Awa have all signed.

The Treaty is for everyone in the Pacific - Maori, Pakeha, Pacific Nations people. Everyone who wants to ensure the integrity of Pacific heritage stays here with those who value it as heritage not as dollars.

Editorial insert: Please contact Aroha if you want to see a copy of the Treaty and Protocols (10 x A4). The overall objective of the package is to establish the Pacific as a lifeforms patent-free zone by way of regional agreements and national laws.

There are currently two Protocols:

Protocol Concerning Biological Prospecting In The Pacific, & Protocol Concerning Human Genetic Research In The Pacific.

Any organised body of people from within the Pacific, (including Aotearoa), having charge over it's own affairs and a structure of leadership, which is constituted according to law or custom and:

** has a commitment to the advancement of indigenous peoples
** and has a genuine intention of carrying out the obligations contained in the Treaty and Protocols may sign and become a 'Party' to them.

Copies of:

Available from:

Aroha Te Pareake Mead is Maori, Director of the Mataatua Declaration on the Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights of Indigenous peoples, Board Member of Cultural Suvival and of the Indigenous Peoples Biodiversity Network. She is also Foreign Policy Convenor for Maori Congress (assembly of Maori tribes of NZ), and for her tribe (Ngati Awa). She is an active participant since 1988 in the UN-WGIP meetings, member of NZ delegation throughout the UNCED process, participant in CBD meetings. She liaises with GRAIN, Oxford (Darrell Posey), RAFI and the South and Meso American Indian Rights Centre.