The Confluence of European Water Bodies will kick off on Thursday night at 7:30 pm at Ocean Space with the screening of ‘I am the river, the river is me’, a river movie starring the Whanganui River in New Zealand, the world’s first ecosystem with legal personhood.
Māori river guardian Ned Tapa invites a First Nations Elder from Australia and his daughter, who are activists dedicated to saving their own dying river back home, on a five-day canoe trip down this sacred river. Joining them are Ned’s friends, his family, an international film crew and Ned’s dog Jimmy. The river is the main character of this film. Both mirror and inspiration, the river unites all the travelers organically, where everyone has a voice – including the crew – to share stories of humor and light, and a space to heal from the darkness of the past, of enduring historical injustice.
For the Māori, the Whanganui is a living being – their ancestor. This belief has been institutionalized by New Zealand law as of 2017. Granting the river legal personhood is a way of environmental protection for the river, and as a way of legally validating the Māori worldview.
The film is an invitation to experience these values: of thinking about our relationship to the world around us – to above all the natural world – as one of intergenerational care and guardianship rather than just ownership/use/extraction. Made over a three-year period, in close collaboration with the Whanganui Māori, the film is a positive, urgent call to action for the rights of nature: now the fastest growing legal movement in the world.
The Confluence of European Water Bodies 2024 is part of the closing events of the exhibition Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania (March 23–October 13, 2024) at Ocean Space Venice. This exhibition, curated by Taloi Havini, comprises artworks by Indigenous artists from the Pacific, Latai Taumoepeau, and Elisapeta Hinemoa Heta. Havini’s curatorial vision is guided by an ancestral call-and-response method to seek solidarity and kinship in times of uncertainty.
The Pacific Islands are one of the regions most impacted by the damaging effects of climate change, and their Indigenous leaders and communities have led the call for more study and greater awareness of the ensuing crises for decades. That is why we are especially thankful for the presence among us of our Oceanian sister and trailblazer, the River Whanganui, and the close solidarity of numerous other bodies of water who currently hold a political voice in their community across all continents.
Director and cinematographer: Petr Lom
Producer: Corinne van Egeraat (ZINDOC), in coproduction with the Whanganui River (Aotearoa/New Zealand), Ten Thousand Images (Norway) and KRO-NCRV/de Boeddhistische Blik (the Netherlands)
Event information
Ocean Space, Campo S. Lorenzo, Venice
Thursday, 3 October, 7:30 pm
Open to all