New Zealand’s Maori king launches unprecedented appeal to protect whales

According to King Tuheitia, whales should have the same rights as humans. He believes that we can no longer turn a blind eye to their decline.

Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau te Wherowhero VII, the king of the Maoris of New Zealand, is a king with a purely honorary title and whose words are rare. And he has been making headlines since Thursday March 28, after launching an unprecedented appeal to recognize whales as having the same right as humans, that of living in a healthy environment, in order to restore their threatened populations. Moreover, New Zealand, which the indigenous Maoris call AoTearoa, that is to say the country of the long white cloud, is a pioneer in the recognition of rights to nature. Nothing could be more natural for the Maoris who, in a landscape, never see simply trees and stones, but deities, heroes or ancestors.

This is undoubtedly why New Zealand is today the only country in the world to have recognized a river and a mountain, Mount Taranaki, as a legal personality, as living entities, which now protects them from projects development that could harm them. A mountain and a river that the Maori consider to be their ancestors. “Our ancestors, whose song has weakened and whose habitat is threatened”insisted King Tuheitia on Thursday before calling for immediate action for the whales.

A king who represents 17% of the New Zealand population

The last time King Tuheitia was really talked about was in 2014. At the time, Prince William and Duchess Kate, who were on tour in New Zealand, asked to meet him, but he declined because they only offered him 90 minutes of face-to-face time. Strange relationship to time for the Maori who go slowly in the morning, not too quickly in the evening. His refusal then greatly shocked England, and well beyond, since numerous tabloids around the world had relayed the “affair”.

Let’s hope his call for rights to whales makes as much noise as this story. Because although he does not enjoy any legal power, he still represents 17% of the New Zealand population who, like him, believe that we can no longer turn a blind eye to the decline of whales. A decline that disrupts the delicate balance of all life in Te Moana, the sea and beyond life on land. Earth, “this mother who never dies”according to the Maori proverb, but who is still not in very good shape and it would be time to cuddle.