Native Declarations and Charters
International Aboriginal Rights Statements for Cutural Protection
A summary of some indigenous statements and declarations for aboriginal intellectual and cultural property rights and ethical standards from around the world.
Most Researched People on the Planet
Indigenous peoples have always been the most researched populations in the world, with indigenous knowledges and cultural/ecological property systematically appropriated and patented by western scientists and researchers as western "discoveries" or innovations. Aboriginal cultural rights declarations attempt to address this problem, which has not decreased with the worldwide decimation of native populations, but actually increased to endemic proportions in recent decades.
International native declarations and charters have been designed to protect aboriginal rights and enforce ethical standards in scientific research. In recent years many such statements have been have been made, such as the Kari Oca Declaration, Native Pan American Health Organisation Draft Declaration, Amazon Basin Declaration, Blue Mountain Declaration, Indigenous Peoples of Tropical Forests Charter, Coolangatta Statement on Indigenous Rights in Education, to name a few.
Mataatua Declaration on Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights of Indigenous Peoples
This document was signed in Whakatane in New Zealand in 1993. It demands that governments "...develop policies and practices which recognise indigenous peoples as the gurardians of their customary knowledge based on cultural traditions." It states that, "...indigenous peoples of the world have the right to self-determination and in exercising that right must be recognised as the exclusive owners of their cultural and intellectual property... and beneficiaries of indigenous knowledge must be direct descendants of that knowledge." The statement claims the right of New Zealand Maori to control and protect their cultural heritage from the ravages of anthropologists and corporate bio-prospectors.
Charter of the Indigenous Peoples of the Tropical Forests
This was signed in Penang in 1993, demanding collective rights around intellectual property, participation in community development, health promotion and improvement in protocols and controls around indigenous knowledge. Article 45 states that "...all investigations in our territories should be carried out with our consent and under joint control and guidance."
A Matter of Survival
These declarations all have one thing in common - they represent a last ditch effort for cultural survival in a world where bio-prospecting and outright piracy by scientists, new-age entrepreneurs and enthographers has reached endemic proportions. Pharmaceutical companies and government agencies fund the research equivalent of strip-mining, bulldozing over the flimsy protection offered by ad hoc cultural ethics and local protocols. Unfortunately, such ethical codes do not carry the same weight as neo-liberal legal requirements that often ignore culturally appropriate protocol and ethical behaviour.
Native declarations, statements and charters represent an effort to be heard in the battlefield of contemporary international IPR law, a eurocentric system designed for the advancement of individual entrepreneurs and corporations, and the exploitation and extinguishment of communal cultural rights belonging to the first nations peoples of this planet. International indigenous rights declarations in this context represent a desperate struggle for survival in a new wave of imperialism.
