Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au: Legal Personhood and our Rivers

Discussion of ‘legal personhood’ as a philosophical approach and practical strategy being implemented by multiple indigenous communities to protect threatened waterways.

Join Zealandia Lead Ranger Bicultural Engagement Terese McLeod (Taranaki Whānui), Professor Catherine Iorns Magallanes, Gerard Albert, Dr Mike Joy and facilitator Kaye Maree Dunn to discuss ‘legal personhood’ as a philosophical approach and practical strategy being implemented by multiple indigenous communities to protect threatened waterways.

Saturday 27th August, 2022 - The Dowse, Lower Hutt

Five years ago the Whanganui Awa made headlines as the first waterway in the world to be declared a legal person. A week later, India recognised the Ganges and Yamuna rivers as having the same legal rights as people. Citizens of Toledo, Ohio, followed suit in 2019, securing legal rights for Lake Erie, and months later Bangladesh granted all its rivers this same status, followed by the Yurok Tribe in California granting personhood to the Klamath River.

But what lies downstream of these landmark decisions? What does personhood mean for an awa and an iwi? Does legal personhood offer a strategy for shifting the colonial systems of conservation and care toward rights of care rather than rights of ownership?

More info and registrations here

Karaka/Kōpi/Corynocarpus Laevigatus Wānanga/Symposium