In New Zealand, there's a river recognized as a legal person in order to afford it the protection it deserves. The local Māori people fought to save the Whanganui River over many years, and its protection is a big environmental win. BBC News highlighted the magnitude of this ruling in their article, The New Zealand River That Became a Legal Person. This film uses the vehicle of a canoe journey on this river to tell the story of why and how it became the first river to be recognized as a legal person.
As the party paddles the river, they discuss their relationship to it, why it's important to them, and some of the legal battle they fought to get it protected. It opens a bit abruptly with images of the rainforest scenery and a campsite, then moves into introducing us to each of the folks on this canoe trip. The journey is guided by the Māori people, who have a spiritual relationship to the river and fought for it for so many years. On this canoe trip, the Māori guides are joined by Australian Aboriginal peoples hoping to learn how they can fight for the same rights for their local river. I feel like this was supposed to be a larger point of making the film, but it felt too skimmed over.
The film is filled with excellent content that needs to be taught in the world, but there were minor practical difficulties. While the scenery is stunning, the filmmakers spent too much time on long, lingering, artistic close-up shots that took me a moment to even figure out what I was looking at. Sound dynamics are valuable in a film; however, these people's words are so important that they need to be louder and less cluttered to be more understandable, considering the unfamiliar accents. There are some abrupt transitions I found a bit jarring. The art and the demonstration of the native ways bring enough value to this film to make up for minor technical difficulties. Highly Recommend.
Why should public libraries add this environmental film to their shelves?
The Indigenous people's deep connection to the river made its desecration through pollution unacceptable. The film's value is in the understanding of how a thing in nature, in this case a river, can have the rights of a legal person, and of why the Indigenous people who fought for the rights of their river believe this was important. The film also demonstrates some of how they did it and how they're now sharing that knowledge with other Indigenous peoples so they can fight for the rights of their rivers. This lesser-known title deserves shelf space because it's about a big environmental victory in the ongoing fight for the treasured places on our planet.
Which library audiences should watch this environmental documentary?
Academic and educational audiences will find value in this film, as it has relevance in areas of anthropology, environmental advocacy, and legal action. It shows how Indigenous peoples have such a vastly different worldview from traditional Western/European ideas. Seeing this can teach us all to be a little less egocentric. It shows there are environmental wins happening. It's not just doom and gloom. Some of the people who might get value from this film would be young people, anyone working to combat our climate crisis, anyone looking to understand other cultures, anyone looking to understand Indigenous cultures' spiritual connection to the land, and so many more.
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