Bio for Debra Harry, MS, Ph.D. Candidate

Debra Harry is Northern Paiute, from Pyramid Lake, Nevada. She is the Producer of the new documentary film “The Leech and the Earthworm,” an IPCB/Yeast Directions production, which examines the globalized hunt for genes within Indigenous territories and bodies and features Indigenous activists from around the world.

In 1994, Debra received a three-year Kellogg Foundation leadership fellowship and studied the field of human genetic research and its implications for Indigenous peoples. In 1997, she earned a master's degree in community economic development from New Hampshire College, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Auckland, School of Education. She has recently authored a chapter entitled, “Acts of Self-Determination and Self-Defense: Indigenous Peoples Responses to Biocolonialism,” as a contribution to a new book entitled “Rights and Liberties in the Biotech Age,” (edited by Sheldon Krimsky and Peter Shorett, Roman and Littlefield, 2005), which is an original volume of essays by leading scientists, policy experts and public interest advocates on the impact of genetic technologies on individual and collective rights.

She serves as the Executive Director of the Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism (IPCB), a U.S.-based non-profit organization created to assist Indigenous peoples in the protection of their genetic resources, Indigenous knowledge, and cultural and human rights from the negative effects of biotechnology.

The IPCB is organized to assist indigenous peoples in the protection of their genetic resources, indigenous knowledge, and cultural and human rights from the negative effects of biotechnology. The IPCB strives to empower Indigenous peoples with educational information, including primers, resource guides, and documentary films, to strengthen their own voices locally, nationally and globally.

Bio for Le`a Malia Kanehe, Esq.

Le`a Malia Kanehe is a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) attorney from Honolulu, Hawai`i. She earned her bachelors degree in Hawaiian Studies and juris doctor law degree from the University of Hawai`i, as well as her law masters from the University of California-Berkeley. Her legal practice focused on native land and traditional and customary rights.

Internationally, she has advocated for the rights of Indigenous peoples at the UN human rights Working Group on Indigenous Populations, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Currently she works as a legal analyst for the Indigenous Peoples’ Council on Biocolonialism evaluating international environmental, intellectual property, and human rights law for Indigenous peoples facing impacts from genetic research and technologies.

Le`a has worked with Kanaka Maoli community-based organizations to raise awareness about the impacts of genetic technologies and Western intellectual property rights. The major outcome of that work was a declaration asserting the right of self-determination of Kanaka Maoli to protect their traditional knowledge, cultural patrimony, biological diversity, and human genetic material.

Joint Work & Publications
Internationally, both Debra and Le`a have advocated for the rights of Indigenous peoples at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Convention on Biological Diversity. They have recently co-authored, a chapter entitled “The BS in Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS): Critical Questions for Indigenous Peoples” (in The Catch: Perspectives in Benefit Sharing, Beth Burrows, ed., published by The Edmonds Institute 2005) and an article entitled “The Right of Indigenous Peoples to Permanent Sovereignty Over Genetic Resources and Associated Indigenous Knowledge” (forthcoming in The Journal of Indigenous Policy, published by Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia). Both pieces of work critique patents over Indigenous knowledge and genetic material and the work of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to develop intellectual property rights over traditional knowledge.