• Biographies
• Alejandro Argumedo
• Ana Valadez
• Aroha Te Pareake Mead
• Atencio Lopez
• Christine Kabuye
• Clark Peteru
• Debra Harry
• Donna Craig
• Dr Ikechi Mgbeoji
• Faviola Ramos Rojas
• James [Sakej] Youngblood Henderson
• Jannie Lasimbang
• Kent Nnadozie
• Kingi Gilbert
• Le'a Kanehe
• Leanne Simpson
• Leonor Zalabata Torres
• Lucia Fernanda Kaigang
• Parshuram Tamang
• Paul Schultz
• Rauna Kuokkanen
• Robynne Quiggin
• Rodrigo de la Cruz
• Suman Rai
• Taiaiake Alfred
• Tarcila Rivera Zea
• Te Tika Mataiapo - Dorice Reid
• Winona La Duke

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Aroha Te Pareake Mead

Aroha Te Pareake Mead is a founding member and Co-Chair of the Call of the Earth Steering Committee. Aroha is from the Ngati Awa and Ngati Porou tribes (Maori) of the Tairawhiti and Mataatua regions of Te Ika a Maui the North Island of Aotearoa, New Zealand. She has been involved in indigenous cultural and intellectual property and environmental issues for over 30 years at tribal, national, Pacific regional and international levels.

A proud Polynesian descendant, Aroha's focus is on the empowerment of local indigenous communities to initiate, manage and provide critical analysis of all research, policy and legislation relevant to them., particularly in the pacific region.

Currently a Senior Lecturer in Maori Business, Treaty of Waitangi and Maori Resource Management at Victoria University of Wellington's School of Management and a National Policy Director for Te Tau Ihu o Nga Wananga - the National Secretariat for the three Maori/tribal universities Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi, http://www.wananga.ac.nz, Te Wananga o Aotearoa, http://www.twoa.ac.nz and Te Wananga o Raukawa http://www.twor.ac.nz .

She is also Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Law, Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

Aroha has over twenty years experience in public policy, legislative development and reform, in a wide range of issues including:

• international treaty negotiations, obligations and reporting

• Maori resource management

• repatriation of ancestral remains

• protection of Maori language

• Treaty of Waitangi claims and settlement processes

• indigenous development and public policy

• biological and genetic resources

• reform of Trademarks, Copyright, Plant Variety Rights and Patent laws and sui generic mechanisms for Maori cultural heritage including traditional knowledge, biosecurity and human genetic issues.

Aroha was a member of the Working Groups that established the New Zealand Royal Commission into Genetic Modification (RCGM), and the NZ Bioethics Council.

She is on the Governing Council of the IUCN - World Conservation Union as Councillor with special responsibilities for indigenous peoples, a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and the Working Group on Extractive Industries and Biodiversity (WGEIB), a Steering Committee member of the Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP) and Co-chair of the Working Group on Culture and Conservation.

She lead the organization of the Conference that developed the 1993 Mataatua Declaration on Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the 1994 Roundtable of Indigenous Peoples and Self-Determination, and the 6th International Conference of Ethnobiologists as well as numerous, national, regional and international conferences on traditional knowledge, cultural and intellectual property rights, biodiversity and genetic resources.

She has published widely on these topics. For a list of Aroha's publications refer to: http://www.vms.vuw.ac.nz.

Email: aroha.mead@vuw.ac.nz or aroha@earthcall.org.

Aroha Te Pareake Mead (New Zealand) Photo:Te
Taiawatea Mead