The team at PoO noted the other day that a bloke named Brenden Hawkins was about to embark on “an extraordinary challenge”, attempting to become the first person to paddle a surfboard the full 235-kilometer length of the Whanganui River.
According to the press statement from I am Hope, he should now have set out on his journey. Or voyage.
His goal is simple but powerful: to spark conversations around mental health, raise funds for I Am Hope, and remind Kiwis that no one has to struggle alone.
Known as “Tarzan” for his long hair, forestry background, and rugged lifestyle, Hawkins was reported to have always pushed himself physically and mentally.
This journey is no different. He estimates it will take between ten and fourteen days, depending on the river’s conditions, his endurance, and sheer determination. His ultimate dream is to reach the river mouth and catch a wave on the beach to finish the challenge.
Hawkins has lined up a support team to kayak alongside him, carrying food and camping gear. He will sleep on the riverbanks each night, pushing as far as he can each day.
I Am Hope founder Mike King enthused: What Brenden is doing is nothing short of incredible.
Taking on 235 kms of river on a surfboard isn’t just physically demanding—it’s a powerful statement about resilience and the importance of mental health.
PoO was reminded that there’s more to this venture than aiming to become the first person to paddle a surfboard down the Whanganui River.
He will be paddling his surfboard down a river which was the first in the world to be accorded all the legal rights of a human being.
We imagine this should give all paddlers good cause to be careful about where they stick their paddles. Or where they stick anything.
Jerry Coyne, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, mentioned the Whanganui River’s legal status in a recent article headed New Zealand volcano deemed to have the status of personhood.
He noted that New Zealand was the first country in the world to give natural geographic features the status of personhood, was first to Te Urewera, then to the Whanganui River.
This year the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill had extended that legal status to Mt Taranaki.
Coyne observed:
… I have no objection to giving the mountain special conservation status and letting the Māori have most of the governance, though this could create a slippery-slope situation in which every geographic feature could be considered special to the Māori before colonization.
But what is added by giving the mountain “personhood”? As far as I can see, nothing substantive save the recognition that the mountain is an “ancestor”. Yet that formalizes a supernatural belief, which should not be the case. Everything else, like damaging the mountain, building forbidden structures on it and the like, can come under the rubric of conservation.
But, as you can see by the unanimous vote, Kiwis of European-ancestry are in no mood to buck the tide of the sacralization of indigenous claims.
Coyne reckoned that considering geographic features “people” because they had supernatural and spiritual aspects would be a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution, if it happened in the USA. But …
New Zealand has no such provision (it doesn’t even have a constitution), so the government can do what it wants. And what it wants is to give the Māori exactly what they demand.
And all of this is happening at a fraught time in New Zealand’s politics. What is happening is that there is a government bill to codify the provisions of the Treaty of Waitangi so they can become clear law, instead of the nebulous provisions (there are different translations and different interpretations) that people cite to justify what they want. (A common theme you’ll see here is the Māori reliance on the treaty to demand equal rights to teach their “ways of knowing” in schools, a demand that cannot possibly be derived from the three provisions of the Treaty.) In other words, the bill would create a sort of New Zealand constitution based on the Treaty.
The Whanganui River won its personhood when Chris Finlayson – a champion of co-governance – was Minister of Treaty Negotiations.
He said during the third reading of the Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Bill:
The legislation recognises Te Awa Tupua as an indivisible and living whole comprising the Whanganui River from the mountains to the sea, incorporating its tributaries and all its physical and metaphysical elements. It recognises Te Awa Tupua as a legal person, with all the corresponding rights, duties, and responsibilities. This really is something very special, and it is already gaining attention both nationally and internationally.
Green Party co-leader James Shaw said:
I am Pākehā. My ancestors are from Ōpōtiki, where Whakatōhea are tangata whenua. I asked for the honour to be allowed to speak to this bill. As Kaiārahi o Te Rōpū Kākāriki [Leader of the Green Party], I asked to be allowed to speak to this bill because it contains a gift for Te Ao Katoa [the entire world].
When I first ran for the leadership of the Green Party, just over two years ago, I was talking about the notion of legal personhood for natural features. Patrick Gower, a journalist, dismissed the idea as “human rights for snails”. So I hope he is listening to the debate this morning.
Shaw acknowledged the Māori Affairs Committee and its chair, Nuk Korako, for the work they had done with the bill and the negotiators on both sides.
And then:
I would also like to acknowledge the Hon Chris Finlayson, the Minister responsible and also the Attorney-General of this country, for shepherding through a conservative Government what is actually a pretty radical legal notion—the idea that an environmental feature would have legal personhood. I asked him, in the middle of an election campaign—I said: “How did you get that through Cabinet? I would have thought there would be some resistance.” He said “Oh, it’s a very interesting legal notion.”, and simply wandered off. In other words, I do not think they knew what they were signing up to!
Some Nats – maybe many of them – might not have known. But the late Chester Borrows, MP for Whanganui at the time , was not one of them.
He said:
On a number of occasions I have canoed on the Whanganui River. Just when I have been taking the river for granted, it has given me a little flick and I have found myself getting wet. So I no longer do that, in spite of the greenery that I left on the right rock, to appease the taniwha.
And:
Today we have heard a lot of talk about this very novel approach of according the river a legal personality. I am surprised that I have not seen more of you scratching your heads, just saying: “Oh yeah, at last.” Here is another whakataukī: back to the future. The fact is that the river has a personality and has always had a personality. Now it is Pākehā who are waking up to that realisation. It is no less sensational, though, that it was my cousin who got Pākehā to understand what you have known all along.
The cousin he mentioned is Chris Finlayson.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.
Known as “Tarzan” for his long hair, forestry background, and rugged lifestyle, Hawkins was reported to have always pushed himself physically and mentally.
This journey is no different. He estimates it will take between ten and fourteen days, depending on the river’s conditions, his endurance, and sheer determination. His ultimate dream is to reach the river mouth and catch a wave on the beach to finish the challenge.
Hawkins has lined up a support team to kayak alongside him, carrying food and camping gear. He will sleep on the riverbanks each night, pushing as far as he can each day.
I Am Hope founder Mike King enthused: What Brenden is doing is nothing short of incredible.
Taking on 235 kms of river on a surfboard isn’t just physically demanding—it’s a powerful statement about resilience and the importance of mental health.
PoO was reminded that there’s more to this venture than aiming to become the first person to paddle a surfboard down the Whanganui River.
He will be paddling his surfboard down a river which was the first in the world to be accorded all the legal rights of a human being.
We imagine this should give all paddlers good cause to be careful about where they stick their paddles. Or where they stick anything.
Jerry Coyne, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, mentioned the Whanganui River’s legal status in a recent article headed New Zealand volcano deemed to have the status of personhood.
He noted that New Zealand was the first country in the world to give natural geographic features the status of personhood, was first to Te Urewera, then to the Whanganui River.
This year the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill had extended that legal status to Mt Taranaki.
Coyne observed:
… I have no objection to giving the mountain special conservation status and letting the Māori have most of the governance, though this could create a slippery-slope situation in which every geographic feature could be considered special to the Māori before colonization.
But what is added by giving the mountain “personhood”? As far as I can see, nothing substantive save the recognition that the mountain is an “ancestor”. Yet that formalizes a supernatural belief, which should not be the case. Everything else, like damaging the mountain, building forbidden structures on it and the like, can come under the rubric of conservation.
But, as you can see by the unanimous vote, Kiwis of European-ancestry are in no mood to buck the tide of the sacralization of indigenous claims.
Coyne reckoned that considering geographic features “people” because they had supernatural and spiritual aspects would be a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution, if it happened in the USA. But …
New Zealand has no such provision (it doesn’t even have a constitution), so the government can do what it wants. And what it wants is to give the Māori exactly what they demand.
And all of this is happening at a fraught time in New Zealand’s politics. What is happening is that there is a government bill to codify the provisions of the Treaty of Waitangi so they can become clear law, instead of the nebulous provisions (there are different translations and different interpretations) that people cite to justify what they want. (A common theme you’ll see here is the Māori reliance on the treaty to demand equal rights to teach their “ways of knowing” in schools, a demand that cannot possibly be derived from the three provisions of the Treaty.) In other words, the bill would create a sort of New Zealand constitution based on the Treaty.
The Whanganui River won its personhood when Chris Finlayson – a champion of co-governance – was Minister of Treaty Negotiations.
He said during the third reading of the Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Bill:
The legislation recognises Te Awa Tupua as an indivisible and living whole comprising the Whanganui River from the mountains to the sea, incorporating its tributaries and all its physical and metaphysical elements. It recognises Te Awa Tupua as a legal person, with all the corresponding rights, duties, and responsibilities. This really is something very special, and it is already gaining attention both nationally and internationally.
Green Party co-leader James Shaw said:
I am Pākehā. My ancestors are from Ōpōtiki, where Whakatōhea are tangata whenua. I asked for the honour to be allowed to speak to this bill. As Kaiārahi o Te Rōpū Kākāriki [Leader of the Green Party], I asked to be allowed to speak to this bill because it contains a gift for Te Ao Katoa [the entire world].
When I first ran for the leadership of the Green Party, just over two years ago, I was talking about the notion of legal personhood for natural features. Patrick Gower, a journalist, dismissed the idea as “human rights for snails”. So I hope he is listening to the debate this morning.
Shaw acknowledged the Māori Affairs Committee and its chair, Nuk Korako, for the work they had done with the bill and the negotiators on both sides.
And then:
I would also like to acknowledge the Hon Chris Finlayson, the Minister responsible and also the Attorney-General of this country, for shepherding through a conservative Government what is actually a pretty radical legal notion—the idea that an environmental feature would have legal personhood. I asked him, in the middle of an election campaign—I said: “How did you get that through Cabinet? I would have thought there would be some resistance.” He said “Oh, it’s a very interesting legal notion.”, and simply wandered off. In other words, I do not think they knew what they were signing up to!
Some Nats – maybe many of them – might not have known. But the late Chester Borrows, MP for Whanganui at the time , was not one of them.
He said:
On a number of occasions I have canoed on the Whanganui River. Just when I have been taking the river for granted, it has given me a little flick and I have found myself getting wet. So I no longer do that, in spite of the greenery that I left on the right rock, to appease the taniwha.
And:
Today we have heard a lot of talk about this very novel approach of according the river a legal personality. I am surprised that I have not seen more of you scratching your heads, just saying: “Oh yeah, at last.” Here is another whakataukī: back to the future. The fact is that the river has a personality and has always had a personality. Now it is Pākehā who are waking up to that realisation. It is no less sensational, though, that it was my cousin who got Pākehā to understand what you have known all along.
The cousin he mentioned is Chris Finlayson.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.
3 comments:
Absolute tripe that personhood be accorded to geological features. Chris Finlayson has a lot to answer for creating racial disharmony, or at least generations of NZer’s now in positions of having genuine grievances while having no Māori bloodlines. The Waitangi Tribunal needs to be done away with.
"Human rights for snails" should be rightly dismissed.
Even if it is the only intelligent thing Patrick Gower has ever said.
Well I hope the next person who is injured or dies on the Wanganui River takes a prosecution against the River under health and safety law. Chris Finlayson world be a good lawyer to fight that case.
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