Here is a great short documentary that I came across recently about a 2017 decision in New Zealand to award legal personhood to a sacred Maori river: https://youtu.be/YQZxRSzxhLI. The documentary begins with a Maori saying about the river at the center of the case, the Whanganui River (New Zealand's third longest river):
"The river flows from the mountain to the sea. I am the river and the river is me."
The narration then switches to the legal interpretation of the river's status, as determined by legislation passed by the New Zealand Parliament:
"Section 12: The river is an indivisible and living whole incorporating all its physical and metaphysical elements. … a living entity with the same legal rights as a person."
It is clear from the video that the river forms a central role in Maori culture:
"When you carry the weight of your ancestors, it is not an easy position to be in. In one sense, you feel them supporting you, the old people, those who have gone on. … [We see the river] as a living entity that carries our ancestors, it carries their memories, as a metaphor for our history. We are very much connected physically, virtually, and even our philosophies very much come from being a people of the river."
A specific dialogue between the producer of the documentary and the Attorney General of NZ who oversaw the passage of the legislation is instructive:
AG: "The fact of the matter is that you can't divide a river up into the bed, the water column, and the air above the river. I think you can get hung-up on these Western concepts of ownership."
Narrator: "OK, so the river's water comes from the rain, and the rain falls through farmland, and city streets, through a lot of different areas. Because, legally, the river is now indivisible, I'd imagine that everything that water touches along the way might eventually gain the same personhood."
AG: "Yes, I suppose that is right in so far as the water is part of this indivisible entity, it will flow-in, flow-out."
Narrator: "So then the larger idea would be that all of nature, in some way or another, gets spoken for."
AG: "When you think about it, why not?"
The issue of personhood appears twice in the fifth edition of Strategic CSR – in Chapter 3 in terms of defining a stakeholder (in which the Whanganui River is mentioned specifically), and in Chapters 5 and 6 in terms of the discussion around corporate personhood. The river's Wikipedia page is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whanganui_River
Take care
David
David Chandler
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