I Am The River, The River Is Me + Panel Discussion
2024 | Dir. Petr Lom | Documentary | New Zealand | 1hr 28 mins
Māori tribal leader Ned Tapa takes a group of friends and family on a canoe trip down the Whanganui River in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the first river in the world recognised as a legal person.
The need for recognition of river rights is a fast-growing worldwide movement redefining rivers as living entities, not mere resources and champions ecological justice, indigenous stewardship, and intergenerational equity in law and governance. ‘I Am The River, The River Is Me’ is a multi-award-winning film centring around a canoe trip down the Whanganui River in New Zealand, led by a Māori elder. The film awakens spiritual belief and practice and is a call to action to draw closer to nature and fight climate change through a fundamental value shift – not just for the Whanganui but for rivers and peoples world-wide.
The film is being shown in collaboration with Southampton River Rights, a group of concerned citizens, mostly living close to the Itchen in Southampton and committed to improving the ecology of the river.
“The River Itchen is central to Southampton’s history and development. This world-renowned, nature rich chalk stream flows from Hampshire’s chalk downland to Southampton, becoming a biodiverse tidal estuary at Woodmill before joining Southampton Water. Pollution and degradation of habitat have greatly depleted the Itchen’s once much richer ecology and biodiversity. Its iconic and keystone chalk stream salmon population is on the brink of extinction. ‘Southampton River Rights’ was recently founded as a response to Southampton City Council’s decision to support the two-year development of an Itchen River Right’s Charter and to promote city-wide discussion, awareness and sharing of lived experience of the Itchen’s unique importance for nature, conservation, wellbeing, culture and history.”
The film will be followed by a Q&A with guest speakers:
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Jim Murray MBE – actor, passionate advocate for Hampshire’s chalk rivers, River Action Vice Chair, and ‘The Last Salmon’ podcaster.
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Dave Rumble – Chief Executive Officer, Wessex Rivers Trust, deeply committed to river restoration and raising awareness of the value of our precious chalk streams
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Neil Williams – Senior Lecturer in Ethics and Environmental Philosophy, River Rights Network founding member and campaigner
