By Moana Ellis, Local Democracy Reporting
A New Zealand law grounded in Māori values is being held up as a world-leading example of legal reform for future generations.
The Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 has been recognised as a model for “living in harmony with nature”, receiving the World Future Council’s inaugural Global Impact Award for 2025.
The Council’s leading prize honours pioneering policies that have influenced legal and policy thinking worldwide.
At the award ceremony in Abu Dhabi, officials praised Te Awa Tupua as one of eight international laws and policy frameworks that pave the way for a sustainable future and protect the rights of future generations.
“These pioneering policies, which draw from the wisdom of indigenous and local knowledge systems, set a new standard for living in harmony with nature and future generations,” said Dr Grethel Aguilar, director general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which hosted the awards ceremony.
“The Whanganui River is now recognised as an indivisible, living entity, with its own rights,” the World Future Council (WFC) said.
“More than legislation, this policy is a transformation – shifting from a Western legal system that separates people from nature, to an indigenous law and worldview where people are part of nature and carry a duty to care for it.”
Whanganui iwi leader Gerrard Albert accepted the award by video during the ceremony, while Aroha Te Pareake Mead accepted it in person on behalf of Whanganui iwi.
Katy Gwiazdon, executive director of the Environmental Ethics and Law Center, said the awards recognised the critical link between decision-making and its consequences.
“We cannot separate our conservation crises from our governance crises,” she said.
The eight winning policies were selected from 41 nominations across 21 countries. Other winners included the Environmental Ombudsoffice of Tyrol, Austria; the Biodiversity Act in Bhutan; and Panama’s Law 287, which recognises the Rights of Nature and the related obligations of the State.
WFC chief executive Neshan Gunasekera said visionary policymaking could change the course of history.
“This year’s winners prove that safeguarding nature and the rights of future generations is not just an aspiration – it is possible, practical and already happening,” he said.
“By conferring a legal personality to the river, the Te Awa Tupua Act reflects the deep ancestral relationship the Whanganui iwi (tribes) have with the sacred waterway and gives them legal means to protect it,” the WFC said.
“The Act affirms the river as a living, indivisible entity. The Te Awa Tupua Act 2017 is the legislative enactment that formalised this recognition and provided the river with legal personhood.”
The Council noted that the legislation was rooted in the history of colonisation in Aotearoa New Zealand and the conflicts of the 19th century. It reflected the Crown’s respect for Māori worldviews and integrated Māori principles into New Zealand’s legal framework.
“It establishes [an] innovative model of co-governance – embodied by the dual office of Te Pou Tupua [the voice and face of the river] – bridging Western statutory law and tikanga. For the first time indigenous peoples and the government or the Crown have entered a partnership to protect the natural environment for the benefit of present and future generations.
“The steps taken to implement the Act, e.g. Te Pūwaha (revitalisation of the Port of Whanganui), show that the Whanganui model should be understood as an indigenous law model, not only a rights of nature model,” the WFC said.
Awa FM – Te Reo Irirangi o Whanganui
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