Future exhibit #3: Water from Te Awa Tupua, the Whanganui River
This particular river is unique: it is one of the few rivers on earth to be recognised as having the legal rights of a living being.
This water was collected from the Whanganui river - Te Awa Tupua - on the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Over the last 140 years, the local Māori iwi (tribe) of Te Awa Tupua fought to have their river recognised as an ancestor. In 2017 the New Zealand government awarded Te Awa Tupua all the rights, duties and liabilities of a legal person. Te Awa Tupua is now legally recognised as “an indivisible and living whole from the mountains to the sea, incorporating the Whanganui River and all of its physical and metaphysical elements.” This legislation of 2017 is truly special on a planet where law pretends not to know of the sovereign life of nature.
L I S T E N
The voice speaking the third narrative in the Museum of Hidden Paths is that of water activist Charlotte Pulver.
Charlotte brings together water ceremonies and river clearings in England. She recently initiated and led the Fellowship of the Spring’s large-scale water pilgrimages in London. Charlotte understands water as life and a true commons. She teaches that through clearing the waterways, prayer, music and song it is possible for everyone to make relationship with water and participate in stewarding the water-shed they are a part of.
In 2019 many are remembering the ancient practice of gathering at the Springs. A movement is growing across the UK and water activists are tending the waters and working to open up the blocked water ways and the old wells of England
I M A G I N E
Consider a future in which ordinary people give time to creating good relationship with their local water-shed. In this future the countries of the world have woken up to the madness of granting priority to the corporations and financial entities. In this future it is the health of the biosphere that is sovereign. Perhaps our hearts can feel a way of being that remembers and reveres our integral entanglement with the waters that support human life.
Consider yourself in a future in which the water, lands and animals are recognised as possessing living rights and are not seen as resources for human extraction. Who then has the authority to speak for the land? Who can act on behalf of the river? And how do we keep our integral relationship to the waters healthy and robust?
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A note on exhibiting Water from Te Awa Tupua
Water Websites:
Fellowship of the Spring FB Group
www.lovingwaters.life www.worldwaterday.org
photo credit
chroma.space
chroma.space