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I am the River, the River is Me + freshwater policy chat

Where

Nelson / Tasman
Suter Art Gallery
208 Bridge St
Nelson 7010
New Zealand
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When

August 22, 2026 at 5:30pm - 8pm

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Join us at The Suter Art Gallery for a screening of the accaimed documentary I AM THE RIVER, THE RIVER IS ME, followed by a freshwater policy and ecology chat with Green MP Lan Pham and our local candidate Rohan O'Neill Stevens. Doors open at 5:00 pm and the event kicks off at 5:30 pm.

Click here to buy tickets.

I AM THE RIVER, THE RIVER IS ME

The Whanganui River in Aotearoa is the first river in the world to be recognized as a

legal person, as a living and indivisible being.

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 people, 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.

Watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wDb21I4etQ

All funds will go to support Rohan O'Neill-Stevens's campaign in Nelson

Contact

Daniel · · 027 246 2981

Will you come?

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