Indigenous leaders of New Zealand, Tahiti, and the Cook Islands recently signed a treaty that recognizes whales as legal persons. The treaty was signed on Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands.
Many indigenous people of the Pacific believe they can trace their ancestry back to whales. Whale migration patterns also guided their journeys to islands of the Pacific.
The signatories hope that their actions will increase protections for the whales.
One of the chapters in my Ph.D. thesis centered on the Cook Islands. And I think whales, being mammals, are our kin. This is a step forward.
Info for this post came in part from Remi Tumin, “Whales Given ‘Personhood’ By Indigenous Polynesians,” New York Times, (Mar. 31, 2024), p. 13.
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