11-17, 18:00–19:30 (Pacific/Auckland), WG403
A canoe trip down the Whanganui River in New Zealand, led by a Māori elder, awakens spiritual belief and practice, and becomes a call to action to draw closer to nature and fight climate change through a fundamental value shift.
The Whanganui River in Aotearoa/New Zealand is the first river in the world to be recognized as a legal person, as a living and indivisible being.
Māori river guardian Ned Tapa invites a First Nations Elder from Australia and his daughter, who are activists dedicated to saving their own dying river back home, on a five-day canoe trip down this sacred river. Joining them are Ned’s friends, his family, an international film crew and Ned’s dog Jimmy.
For the Māori, the Whanganui is a living being – their ancestor. This belief has been institutionalized by New Zealand law as of 2017. Granting the river legal personhood is a way of environmental protection for the river, and as a way of legally validating the Māori worldview.
The film is an invitation to experience these values: of thinking about our relationship to the world around us – to above all the natural world – as one of intergenerational care and guardianship rather than just ownership/use/extraction.
The film is the result of a four-year long collaboration with the Māori community in Whanganui.