The Mataatua Declaration on the Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights of Indigenous Peoples (1993): An excerpt Declaration of the First International Conference on the Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Whakatane, June 1993) We - Declare that Indigenous Peoples of the world have a right to self-determination, and in exercising that right must be recognised as the exclusive owners of their culture and intellectual property - Acknowledge that Indigenous Peoples of the world have a commonality of experiences relating to the exploitation of their cultural and intellectual property - Affirm that the knowledge of Indigenous Peoples of the world is of benefit to all humanity - Recognise that Indigenous Peoples are capable of managing their traditional knowledge themselves, but are willing to offer it to all humanity provided that their fundamental rights to define and control this knowledge are protected by the international community - Insist that the first beneficiaries of indigenous knowledge, culture and intellectual property rights must be the direct indigenous descendants of such knowledge - Declare that all forms of discrimination and exploitation of Indigenous Peoples, indigenous knowledge and indigenous cultural and intellectual property rights must cease. [www.tpk.govt.nz/publications/docs/tangata/app-e.html] In accordance with the Mataatua Declaration, the protocol used in this research project aims to protect the moral rights of the indigenous knowledge-carriers. In accordance with this protocol, no material from the following stories should be used in any form without prior approval of the authors of the stories.