Save Rapanui Benefit Los Angeles

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Lono Kollars, Kaleponi Advocates for Hawaiian Affairs
Phone: 951.534.3750
E-mail: lono.kollars@yahoo.com

SAVE RAPA NUI: EASTER ISLAND IN CRISIS
with Rapa Nui Film, Music, Art and Discussion to Support the Indigenous People in Crisis

When: Thursday, October 28, 2010, from 6:00PM - 11:00PM

Where: Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd, LA, CA 90027

VIP Reception and Seating: $50 (at 6:00pm)
General Admission: $25

Info: Santi Hitorangi, United Nations Representative for Rapa Nui and Longtale International will be co-hosting a screening and panel discussion of the documentary “BEING RAPANUI,” a Rapa Nui perspective, with an exhibition and silent auction of Rapa Nui Petroglyphs rubbings as well as other art donated by La Luz de Jesus Gallery to help support the struggle of the Rapanui indigenous people to keep their ancestral homelands on Easter Island.

The event is sponsored by: KAHA, (Kaleponi Advocates of Hawaiian Affairs), Imipono Projects, VC (Visual Communications), Longtale International and La Luz de Jesus Gallery

Traditional Pacific Island haka and entertainment, live musicc and DJ Ninja Simone (Soul Sessions).

Los Angeles, CA—

Rapa Nui, also known as Isla de Pascua, but better known as Easter Island, is part of the Polynesian Triangle that stretches from Hawaii to the North, Rapa Nui to the East and New Zealand to the South. Easter Island has long been the subject of curiosity and speculation. How and why did its inhabitants carve and transport the massive statues (Moai) which surround the island? What remains of this culture today, and what lessons can we learn from their legacy?

Rapa Nui is one of the most remote places on the planet. Their closest neighbor, Pitcairn Island with fewer than a hundred inhabitants, is about 1,300 miles to the West. Continental Chile is about 2,200 miles to the East. It is a U.N. World Heritage site, famous for its monolithic Moai, stone statues created and moved by the islanders’ ancestors.

Until 1888, Rapa Nui was unclaimed by any foreign country. The island lacked rivers and trees, and a safe anchorage. Chile annexed the island under the impression that it had agricultural potential and strategic possibilities as a naval station. Formal annexation brought little change to the island until 1896 when Chile placed the island under the jurisdiction of the Department of Valparaiso. The island was turned into a vast sheep ranch under the direction of a Valparaiso businessman, Enrique Merlet, who confiscated buildings and all animals left to the Rapanui by the missionaries who had fled the island in the wake of Dutrou-Bornier's reign of terror. Islanders were forced to build a stone wall around the village of Hangaroa and, except for work, permission was needed to leave the area even to fetch water from the crater. Those who revolted against these perverse rules were exiled to the continent, few returned.

As of August 4th, 2010, the people of Rapa Nui have non-violently re-occupied the lands that had been unlawfully taken by Chile from their grandparents. The Chilean government has responded by sending in armed forces. As the Rapa Nui people strive to reclaim their island and independence, the islanders may be on the brink of extermination at the hands of Chilean forces.

A peaceful resolution would be the hope for restoration to the world and a new beginning for Te Pito O Te Henua “the Navel of the World,” what the early settlers called Rapa Nui.

The Indian Law Resource Center in Washington D.C. has agreed to represent the Rapa Nui families and the Rapa Nui Parliament.

Although many people think the island is deserted and the Moai are a mystery, the Rapa Nui are very much alive and has been a civilization of master engineers, artists and survivalists for nearly 2000 years.

For more information about Rapa Nui, contact Susan Hitorangi: (845) 596 5403,
Tepitoproductions@mac.com or go to SaveRapa Nui.org.

The Barnsdall Gallery Theater is owned and operated by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs

Pacific reflections of the Copenhagen Summit

Short interview I did whilst in transit in Hong Kong, on the way home from Copsinhagen

KIFN Members Jailed for Six Months

About the recent sentencing of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KIFN) Members for asserting their land rights.

For more info, visit intercontinentalcry.org/tag/KIFN

NT workshop to inform Indigenous communities about human rights

Help Indigenous people across the Pacific, more like soften them up likely, people and mobs all round the pacific having been talking to "government officials" for years and years, as if they have been listening. If the UN was sincere about Indigenous Rights in the pacific Region then DRIP (Declaration Rights Indigenous Peoples) would have been passed by its member states 21 years ago. Still no end to Australian Apartheid, Aboriginal Genocide here, no Treaty here, so where does this human rights discussion start?

I'd be preferring to be doing workshops with the Palm Island mob, and learning real lessons about Indigenous strength, direct action and fighting oppression. Thats the best way to arm Indigenous People to fight the onslaught of globalisation and transnational corporations...grassroots educating and organizing standing up and fighting back.

the workshops aim to help Indigenous people across the Asia-Pacific region deal with globalisation.

"[The aim is to] teach people what the content of international human rights standards are and how the international system works, how the UN works," he said.

"Then to develop their skills to be able to engage in those processes, to be able to talk to government officials - to negotiate effectively."

Human rights advocates from Asia and Australia are in the Northern Territory today to discuss how to improve Indigenous people's understanding of their basic rights.

The workshops have been organised as part of the Diplomacy Training Program and will be held in Batchelor, south of Darwin.

The program was set-up by East Timor's Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta and is affiliated with the University of New South Wales.

Executive director of the program Patrick Earle says the workshops aim to help Indigenous people across the Asia-Pacific region deal with globalisation.

"[The aim is to] teach people what the content of international human rights standards are and how the international system works, how the UN works," he said.

"Then to develop their skills to be able to engage in those processes, to be able to talk to government officials - to negotiate effectively."

Mr Earle says representatives from Indigenous communities in Burma, Indonesia, Australia and other Asia-Pacific countries will be attending the week-long workshop.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1897173.htm

Indigenous Peoples' Rights Ignored Again

Julio Godoy

BERLIN, Apr 10 (IPS) - The rights of indigenous people are given
respect in speech after speech, but few countries have signed up to an
international convention to protect those rights.

The Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent
Countries, also known as Convention 169, was proposed by the
International Labour Organisation (ILO) in June 1989. But the
convention has been ratified by only 18 countries, mostly developing
nations from Latin America.

In Europe, only Norway, the Netherlands and Spain have approved the
convention. The German Bundestag (parliament) debated the convention
last week, and turned it down.

Most members of the German parliament agreed on the need to protect
the rights of indigenous people. "Indigenous peoples through their
experience and specific knowledge of nature contribute in a particular
way to cultural diversity," Liberal member Karl Addicks said. "We
Liberals expressly support the protection and respect of indigenous
people." But he went on to oppose the convention.

Green deputy Thilo Hoppe, who had proposed approval of the ILO
convention to the Bundestag, said the debate was "a shame"
particularly since Rodolfo Stavenhagen, UN special rapporteur on human
rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples, was attending
the session as special guest.

Hoppe said "the opposition to convention 169 derives from the fear
that the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples could
constitute an obstacle for German and other international private
companies operating in the regions inhabited by them."

Convention 169 calls for protection of natural resources in areas
inhabited by indigenous peoples. Article 15, paragraph 1 of the
convention states: "The rights of the peoples concerned to the natural
resources pertaining to their lands shall be specially safeguarded.
These rights include the right of these peoples to participate in the
use, management and conservation of these resources."

Paragraph 2 of the same article states: "In cases in which the State
retains the ownership of mineral or sub-surface resources or rights to
other resources pertaining to lands, governments shall establish or
maintain procedures through which they shall consult these peoples,
with a view to ascertaining whether and to what degree their interests
would be prejudiced, before undertaking or permitting any programmes
for the exploration or exploitation of such resources pertaining to
their lands."

In addition, the convention says the peoples concerned "shall wherever
possible participate in the benefits of such activities, and shall
receive fair compensation for any damages which they may sustain as a
result of such activities."

Convention 169 has been invoked by indigenous peoples in several
conflicts over exploitation of natural resources like gold, gas and
oil, especially in Latin America. In Guatemala, the rights the
government gave to the Canadian firm Glamis to exploit gold mines in a
region inhabited by Mayan peasants in the south-western area San
Marcos, has been a source of conflict since 2003.

Representatives of Indians say that the Guatemalan government has
approved convention 169, and is therefore obliged to protect natural
resources on Indians' land. The Guatemalan government has ignored the
Mayan Indians' pleas.

According to the ILO, most of the world's estimated 350 million
indigenous people are marginalised in almost every aspect of daily life.

In a paper arguing the need to approve the convention, the ILO says
that "with globalisation, increasing population pressure on their
traditional lands and the increasing pressure on natural resources,
(indigenous peoples) are faced with increasing poverty, ill health and
discrimination."

In a report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva last month,
Stavenhagen said adoption of new legal norms and the creation of a
modern institutional framework "represent great progress in the
protection of indigenous peoples' rights." But, he said, "there is
still an 'implementation gap' between the norms and the practice,
between the formal recognition and the actual situation of indigenous
peoples."

In Latin America, Stavenhagen told the council, "the gradual
deterioration of the indigenous habitat and the impact of extractive
activities on the environment and on indigenous peoples' rights are
matters of special concern, especially in the Amazon, the northern
border areas and the Pacific coast." (END/2007)

Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) Comunique

http://www.tierradentro.org.mx/?q=node/120

Comunique’ read by Comandanta Kelly, Sixth
Commission, Zapatista Army of

National Liberation (EZLN).

Sisters and Brothers of Mexico and the World:

Here in Chiapas we face a new offensive against the indigenous zapatista
communities, carried out by paramilitary groups affiliated with the PRI and
with the PRD, supported by the State government (PRD), the Federalgovernment
(PAN), by their land and agrarian offices, by the ex-landowners—who originally
stole their lands from our peoples—and by themilitary and police forces, in a
clear conspiracy to evict the zapatista communities from the land and
territories that were recovered with heart,blood, and death in 1994.

Here in Chiapas, though the struggle of thousands of compa~eras andcompa~eros,
members of zapatista militias and of our bases of support, we carried out a
genuine agrarian reform and agrarian revolution, based onthe Revolutionary
Agrarian Law of 1993. Thanks to this revolutionary recovery of land and
territories, today there are thousands of zapatista and non-zapatista families—who
before 1994 had been evicted from their land, their lives and their autonomy—who
now have land to work, land tobuild community, land for a better future. For
indigenous, peasant and other rural peoples, land and territory are more than
just sources of workand food; they also signify culture, community, history,
ancestors, dreams, future, life, and Mother Earth.

But today in Chiapas, just as in many other parts of Mexico and the world, Power
and neoliberalism are imposing a true counter-agrarian reform and counter-revolution.
Just like in Mexico and many other countries where agrarian reforms have been
carried out—whether from above, by revolutionary governments, or from below, by
social movements, or wherever

peoples defend their territories against privatization—they try to evict
communities from their lands and recovered territories, with their armies,
paramilitaries, privatizing laws, judiciaries and agrarian authorities,
political parties, false conservationist and environmental discourses,
biopiracy and GMO contamination, among other methods, all with the objective of
turning land, territories, biodiversity and life itself into mere commodities.

Here in Chiapas, as in the entire world, wherever
indigenous peoples,peasants, artisanal fisherfolk and other rural peoples
defend their right to land and territory, or wherever landless peoples struggle
for land and territory, we are under attack from Power.

In the whole world, it is the same story. Our struggle is your struggle. Gathered
here today in San Cristo’bal de las Casas, this 25 of March of 2007, we, the
Sixth Commission of the EZLN, with local, national and international members of
the Other Campaign, and national and international sister organizations, call
on and invite all organizations in Mexico and the world, to help us launch the
Global Campaign for the Defense of Indigenous, Peasant and Autonomous Land and
Territories in Chiapas, Mexico and the World.

We call for a global campaign of mutual support between rural peoples and other
peoples who support our rights and our struggles for the right to life and
dignity, and we call on all of us to join forces with each other, for example
mutual support between the Global Campaign for Agrarian Reform of La Via
Campesina and this Global Campaign for the Defense of

 Indigenous, Peasant and Autonomous Land
and Territories in Chiapas, Mexico and the World.

Sisters and brothers, we invite you to add your local, national and international
names to this campaign, and to take on the commitment to carry out joint actions
of mutual solidarity.

The struggle for the defense of land and territory is the struggle for life and
dignity.

Behind us-you, stand you-we. [”Detras de nosotros, estamos ustedes.”]

Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples Meets in Guatemala

Written by Marc Becker

Wednesday, 04 April 2007

Thousands of Indigenous peoples from 24 countries gathered in Guatemala on March 26 for the Third Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala. After U.S. President George W. Bush visited the country two weeks earlier during his contentious "diplomatic" tour of Latin America, Maya priests cleansed the site of his "bad spirits" in preparation for the summit. The week-long summit was held in Iximché, a sacred Maya site and main city of the Kaqchikel Maya people. The first day dawned bright and sunny. In Tecpán, a nearby town where many of the delegates to the summit were housed with local families, organizers gathered in the main plaza and exploded fireworks to celebrate the beginning of the meetings. In the early morning light, delegates crowded on buses to travel the four kilometers up to the Iximché ceremonial site. Nestled in a plaza among the pyramids, Maya leaders led the group in a spiritual ceremony as the sun peeked over the horizon. On subsequent days, people from the North, South, and Central America all took their turns with the opening ceremonies. After the ceremonies, delegates descended to the entrance of the archaeological site for breakfast (well organized in a communitarian and solidarity style) and the inauguration of the summit under a huge tent set up for this purpose. A Maya elder cleansed the speaker’s table with incense before the presentations began. Despite this cosmological framing, the summit’s discussions focused primarily on economic and political rather than cultural issues. The summit’s slogan "from resistance to power" captured the spirit of the event. It is not enough to resist oppression, but Indigenous peoples need to present concrete and positive alternatives to make a better and more inclusive world. The summit’s ideological orientation was apparent from the inaugural panel onward. After Tecpán’s mayor welcomed delegates to Iximché, Ecuadorian Indigenous activist and Continental Council member Blanca Chancoso called for Indigenous peoples to be treated as citizens and members of a democracy. She rejected war making, militarization, and free trade pacts. "Our world is not for sale," she declared. "Bush is not welcome here. We want, instead, people who support life. Yes to life. Imperialism and capitalism has left us with a historic debt, and they owe us for this debt." She emphasized the importance of people creating alternatives to the current system. Joel Suárez from the Americas Social Forum was also present to announce that the Third Americas Social Forum will be held in Guatemala in 2008. For it to be successful, Suárez emphasized, the forum must have an Indigenous and female face. He called on delegates to support the forum. Indigenous Peoples and Nation-States Three plenary panels with invited speakers framed the discussions of the summit’s theme of moving from resistance to power. The panels examined relations between Indigenous peoples and nation-states, territory and natural resources, and Indigenous governments. Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj from Guatemala pointed to a gap between Indigenous political understandings and the technical skills necessary to achieve those visions. In particular, Indigenous leaders need better training in economics and international law. But this does not mean borrowing solutions from the outside world. "There are no recipes for success," Velásquez emphasized. "We need to make up our own alternatives." Bolivia's foreign relations minister David Choquehuanca argued that we should not rebuild current states, but dream and create new ones. "Our minds are colonized," he stated, "but not our hearts. It is time to listen to our hearts, because this is what builds resistance." Development plans look for a better life, but this results in inequality. Indigenous peoples, instead, look to how to live well (vivir bien). Choquehuanca emphasized the need to look for a culture of life. Rodolfo Pocop from the Guatemalan organization Waqib' Kej argued that we need a new word for the term "resources" because it reflects a mercantilist concept foreign to Indigenous cosmology. He suggested using instead "mother earth" because if we don’t live in harmony with the earth we will not have life. Isaac Avalos, secretary general of the Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (CSUTCB), picked up on this concept, suggesting that we should not talk about land but territory because it is a much broader term that includes everything–land, air, water, petroleum, gas, etc. Following along with this symbolism, we must take care of the earth as our mother so that it can continue to provide a future for its children. The discussions led the gathered delegates to advocate for very practical and concrete actions, such as drinking local water and boycotting Coca-Cola. Following the panels, delegates broke into working groups that focused on a variety of themes including self-determination, intellectual property rights, identity and cosmology, globalization, and Indigenous justice systems. While public events were often filled with discourses long on rhetoric, the workshops provided a venue for substantive and concrete proposals. Women Inclusion and equality are expressed values that have long run through many Indigenous communities and organizations. Nevertheless, aspects of the dominant culture’s inequalities surfaced throughout the summit, most visibly apparent in gender inequalities. Women participated actively and massively throughout the summit. But while organizers made honorable attempts at equality on the plenary panels, men still outnumbered women by about three to one at the speakers’ tables. The imbalance became even more notable during discussion periods during which there were about ten men for every woman who approached the mike. Finally, a woman from Peru rose to note that men always dominate these conversations. "We need parity," she demanded, "both individually and collectively." Declaration of Iximché The most visible and immediate outcome of the summit was the Declaration of Iximché (available in Spanish and English on the summit’s website http://www.cumbrecontinentalindigena.org/). It is a strong statement that condemns the U.S. government’s militaristic and imperialistic policies, and calls for respect for human rights, territory, and self-determination. It ratified an ancestral right to territory and common resources of the mother earth, rejected free trade pacts, condemned the construction of a wall between Mexico and the United States, and called for the legalization of coca leaves. For an Indigenous summit, the declaration is perhaps notable for its lack of explicit ethnic discourse. Instead, it spoke of struggles against neoliberalism and for food sovereignty. On one hand, this pointed to the Indigenous movement’s alignment with broader popular struggles in the Americas. On the other, it demonstrated a maturation of Indigenous ideologies that permeate throughout the human experience. Political and economic rights were focused through a lens of Indigenous identity, with a focus on concrete and pragmatic actions. For example, in justifying the declaration’s condemnation of a the construction of a wall on the United States/Mexico border, Tonatierra’s Tupac Enrique Acosta declared that nowhere in the Americas could Indigenous peoples be considered immigrants because colonial borders were imposed from the outside. The declaration endorsed the candidacy of Bolivia’s Indigenous president Evo Morales for the Nobel Peace Prize. Morales was widely cheered at the summit. Initial plans called for him to attend the summit’s closing rally, but ongoing political tensions in Bolivia prevented him from traveling to Guatemala. Instead, he sent a letter that read, "After more than 500 years of oppression and domination, they have not been able to eliminate us. Here we are alive and united with nature. Today we resist to recuperate together our sovereignty." Morales’ reception was in notable contrast to Guatemala’s own 1992 Noble Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú who is currently making a bid for the presidency of that country. She did not appear at the summit, nor did she send a message. A delegate’s proposal to include support for her presidential aspirations in the declaration was loudly rejected. Some justified this exclusion as a reluctance to become involved in the internal politics of a country. What it perhaps more accurately reflected, however, was the messy contradictions of aspiring to exactly what the summit’s theme advocated: political power. Menchú continues to enjoy more support outside of Guatemala than within, with some of the choices she has made for political alliances being unpopular among her base. The refusal to support her candidacy was the most visible fractionalization at the summit. Integration of Indigenous Movements In order to build toward the integration of a continental Indigenous movement, organizers called for regional coordinating committees in Central and North America similar to South America’s Coordinating Body for the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) and the Andean Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations that was formed last year. Delegates also agreed to establish a Continental Coordinating body for Nationalities and Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. The body will allow exchange of ideas about quality of life and the movement against neoliberal trade policy. The final item of business at the closing session was the location for the next meeting. The first summit was held in Mexico in 2000 and the second in Ecuador in 2004. Organizers requested that proposals be done by region not country, and proposed that the next logical location would be either southern South America or the North. No proposal was forthcoming from the North, but Argentina proposed the Chilean side of the triple Peru/Bolivia/Chile border in 2009. Justification for the location including supporting socialist president Michelle Bachelet to lead Chile out of the shadow of the Pinochet dictatorship, and the lingering issue of Bolivia’s outlet to the sea. The continental coordinating committee will be based in Chile to help organize the next summit. The idea of a continental Indigenous organization did not seem to inspire a good deal of enthusiasm among the assembled delegates, although when it came to a vote only three delegates indicated their opposition. Perhaps delegates recognized the value of international meetings but believed that the most important work would happen locally in their own communities. Regional Indigenous organizations in Latin America have a history of being subject to external co-optation and internal divisions, which naturally makes some activists hesitant to create another such supra-natural organization. Nevertheless, no one publicly questioned the wisdom of forming more regional coordinating bodies. Despite these persistent concerns and other divisions that occasionally surfaced, the level of energy and optimism at the summit was high. The week closed with three marches that converged in a rally in Guatemala City’s main plaza, symbolically representing the unification of Indigenous struggles across the Americas. In the dimming light, organizers launched three hot air balloons, two with the rainbow colors of the Indigenous flag. As delegates slowly dispersed, a remaining determined group of activists danced in a circle waving Indigenous flags as a Bolivian tune "Somos Más" (we are more) blasted on the sound system. An almost full moon hung over the national palace. The week-long summit ended on a high note. The meeting seemed to have built a lot of positive energy. Discussions reflected a deepening and broadening of concerns and strategies. The gathering successfully strengthened both local and transnational Indigenous organizing efforts. Marc Becker is a Latin America historian and a founder of NativeWeb, a project to use the Internet to advance Indigenous struggles. Contact him at marc@yachana.org http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/687/1/

Indigenous women demand rights

Iximche, Guatemala, March 31 (NNN-Prensa Latina) One of the most moving events in the Indigenous People's Summit was when women presented the Declaration of Iximche, where they expressed their main demands to the plenary session.

The silence to which they are submitted not only in the home but also in society, the triple discrimination of being a woman, poor and indigenous and the absence of policies to satisfy their needs were denounced at the meeting.

One of the demands was to put a stop to the use of women as a decorative object or symbol of political, social, cultural and economic spaces.

They also insisted on the eradication of machismo, racism and discrimination in the homes, work, study centres or as obstacles to their development.

The Declaration of Iximche read by the Nicaraguan leader, Ligia del Carmen Vanegas, demanded that governments fulfill international agreements to recognize and protect the rights of indigenous women.

They also asked the governments to approve legislation against genocide from intra-family violence, sexual harassment, rape and murder of indigenous women.

While the Declaration of Iximche was being read hundreds of women linked arms cordoning the hall and at the end shouted "Power to Women."

Indigenous protest against Wild River

By Robin McConchie

Tuesday, 27/03/2007

Indigenous communities on Cape York claim they have been excluded from negotiations which could impact on their native title.

Under the Wild River Act, the Queensland Government can impose strict conservation measures and development restrictions on declared river catchments.

The listing of 13 Cape York rivers for protection has been deferred pending discussion with all stakeholders.

Last Friday night a small group of Indigenous representatives protested outside a Wilderness Society dinner saying traditional owners were offended that the society had not consulted with them on something it was so vigorously promoting.

In a leaflet, the indigenous groups say the Wild Rivers Act will impact on native title but the Wilderness Society has denied that. Spokesman Anthony Esposito blames the State Government for the delays in negotiations.

Representatives of the Cape York Land Council say their legal advice is that native title will be affected by the Act and documents obtained under Freedom of Information rules also indicate the State Government has been told it's a possibility.

The Country Hour put calls in to the office of the Minister for Natural Resources and Water but Craig Wallace was unavailable for comment today.

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/qld/content/2006/s1882886.htm

Native Feminisms Without Apology

Native Feminisms
Without Apology

What is specific about indigenous articulations of feminism? How do these articulations vary among indigenous communities?; Many indigenous nations have instituted gender-discriminatory policies in the name of "tradition." What do pro-sovereignty, indigenous feminists interventions into these policies look like?; How can critiques of gender oppression and violence be made central to anti-colonial, pro-sovereignty analysis and politics?

http://www.nah.uiuc.edu/native_feminisms.htm

Pacific Islanders Preyed on by Bio-Pirates

RIGHTS:
Pacific Islanders Preyed on by Bio-Pirates
Stephen Leahy

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37007

BROOKLIN, Canada, Mar 20 (IPS) - The Pacific region has long been a
favourite target of gene hunters, unethical bio-researchers and
"patent bottom trawlers" looking to profit from its unique flora,
fauna -- and human beings.

Pacific Islanders have had their genes patented against their will.
T-cells from the Hagahai tribe in Papua New Guinea can be purchased
today on the internet for 216 dollars.

Cook Islanders were nearly the subjects of an experiment to transplant
pig parts into humans in 2002. Had it proceeded, the U.S. would have
labelled the Cook Islands a "rogue state" over fears about the
potential spread of virulent pig retroviruses in humans, according to
a new book launched by co-publishers Call of the Earth Llamado de la
Tierra, and the United Nations University.

Call of the Earth Llamado de la Tierra is an independent indigenous
initiative on intellectual property rights and traditional knowledge.

"The book is a catalogue of unethical experiences in the Pacific
region," said Aroha Mead, a senior lecturer at Victoria University in
Wellington, New Zealand, and co-editor of the book "Pacific Genes and
Life Patents", launched at the university Tuesday.

"There's been a lot of bad behaviour here. Many researchers from the
outside have a colonial attitude," Mead told IPS from Wellington.

An absence of regulation and widespread naiveté regarding the latest
genetic technologies and intellectual patent law has made the region a
major target for commercial "gene hunters" or bio-prospectors, she
says, likening gene pirates to deep-sea trawlers that scoop up
everything in their path -- and then claim intellectual property
rights to anything they think might have commercial value in the future.

"Genes are a key resource of the new world bio-economy and our
isolation and diversity makes the Pacific Islands particularly
attractive," writes contributor Te Tika Mataiapo - Dorice Reid, a
traditional chief from the Cook Islands.

The modern bio-economy crashes head on with traditional cultural and
spiritual values in the South Pacific, Reid adds.

One of the first collisions was in the early 1990s. Without informing
individuals, their communities or governments, the U.S. government
filed patents on DNA cells taken from the Hagahai tribe in Papua New
Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The patent application was eventually
dropped, but cell lines derived from their unique DNA remain in use
and for sale.

The region retains strong traditional cultural beliefs, which means
that even if individuals had consented, the genetic material donated
would reflect an entire extended family's genetic makeup and their
permission would be needed as well.

"In South Pacific cultures, a plant is a living ancestor -- and even a
drop of human blood retains its life spirit after it has been
collected for medical research or synthesised and specific DNA
qualities isolated," said A.H. Zakri, director of the United Nations
University's Yokohama-based Institute of Advanced Studies.

"We hope this book helps advance international understanding" of these
deeply-held values, Zakri said in a statement.

"Plants and animals are not seen as mere physical or biological
entities but also as embodiment of ancestral spirits," writes
co-editor Steven Ratuva of Fiji, a senior fellow at the University of
the South Pacific.

In Fijian cosmology, the genetic materials that make up plants and
animals are considered part of the circle of life and are sacrosanct.
Moreover, medicinal plants are considered common property and
available for everyone

Patents have also been taken out on extracts from many plants
Islanders have used for thousands of years, including Kava, Taro,
Canarium Nut and others.

"Patents are not a tool of humanitarian research. They are a tool of
commerce and exclusive property rights and serve to give signals to
others 'stay away, they're mine. I own them'," Mead writes.

Such action violates Islanders' traditional values of "pono" and
"tika" (to act appropriately), where everyone benefits from the use of
a plant, including individuals, their families, and communities.

Pacific Islanders suffer from very high rates of Type-2 diabetes, and
in 2002, some researchers claimed that transplanting pancreas cells
from pigs into diabetics offered a potential cure. Unable to properly
assess the proposed experiment, the Cook Island government agreed. The
international medical community objected and then local indigenous
leaders protested, writes Reid.

Pacific Island states generally have great difficulty staying abreast
of developments in biotechnology and developing legislation to cope
with social, legal, and ethical implications of the new technologies,
she says.

"It is very difficult for poor communities to resist research
proposals that promise free health services and other things in
exchange for blood or DNA samples," says Mead.

One solution is to create a regional Pacific intellectual property
office to assess patent and trademark applications, informed by
Pacific model laws and responses. Such an office could enable patent
application assessments to be carried out in a more critical manner
with regard to Pacific cultural heritage.

The Cook Islands have just set up a research office to screen all
research proposals, says Mead.

"That's a good step forward. I hope more governments will do this,"
she said.

Patents and biotechnology are not going to help solve the problems
facing the Pacific region, she and others in the book note. Poverty,
poor health care and rising sea levels with climate change are among
the main challenges the region faces.

"We don't need any more researchers coming here just to be the first
to discover something," Mead concluded. (END/2007)