A Maori Call for Whale Legal Personhood

The King of New Zealand’s indigenous Maori people has signed a "Declaration for the Ocean" that calls for whales to be granted legal personhood as part of a plan to protect them, AFP reported on Thursday. 

 

The announcement reportedly recognizes the cetaceans as legal persons with the inherent right to freedom of movement, natural behavior, and expression of their unique cultures. And it has the intention of helping whales recover their depleted population. 

 

“The sound of our ancestor’s song has grown weaker, and her habitat is under threat, which is why we must act now”, King Tūheitia Potatau te Wherowhero VII (left) was quoted as saying. 

 

He was echoed by high chief Travel Tou Ariki, who said: “We can no longer turn a blind eye. Whales play a vital role in the health of our entire ocean ecosystem… We must act with urgency to protect these magnificent creatures before it’s too late”. 

 

Whales possess a tapu (sacred) significance to Maori as both supernatural beings and as harbingers of personal change and spiritual growth. And some tribes see the mammals as the descendants of Tangaroa, the god of the ocean. 

 

Whales are the largest animals on Earth and they live in every ocean. The massive mammals range from the 600-pound dwarf sperm whale (Scientific name: Kogia sima) to the colossal blue whale (Scientific name: Balaenoptera musculus) which can weigh more than 200 tons and stretch up to 100 feet long – almost as long as a professional basketball court. Many of the species are endangered. 

 

The move to grant whales personhood would not be without precedent. In 2017, New Zealand passed a groundbreaking law granting personhood status to the Whanganui River and Mount Taranaki volcano, both of which are important to the Maori people. 

 

Note: The word Māori refers to the indigenous people of New Zealand and their language. Both the term and the people are a hybrid of various Polynesian cultures, and are thought to have arrived in New Zealand more than one thousand years ago. 

 

The Maori people are well known for their distinctive traditional full-body and facial tattooing. They have a unique status in the world as indigenous people who have full legal rights. They currently make up about 17% of the country’s total population, or about 900,000 people.