As governments struggle to halt biodiversity loss and protect the world’s oceans using legal systems largely built by and for nation-states, Indigenous leaders are advancing a radically different vision—one that treats whales not as resources to be managed, but as living ancestors with rights of their own.
On Thursday, Indigenous leaders from across Polynesia released the text of a landmark treaty recognizing whales as legal persons and ancestral beings, a move that supporters say could reshape global debates over ocean governance, conservation and Indigenous sovereignty.
The treaty, He Whakaputanga Moana, was signed in March 2024 in the Cook Islands by Māori and Polynesian leaders, including the late Māori King Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII, but its contents were not made public until now.
Grounded in Indigenous legal and cultural traditions, the agreement establishes whales as rights-holders and calls for their protection through laws and management systems inspired and led by Indigenous peoples.
“Whales, as legal persons, possess inherent rights essential for their existence, thriving, and flourishing in healthy marine ecosystems,” the declaration says. Among the rights it enumerates: freedom of movement and migration; development of natural behaviors; cultural expression; a healthy environment; and restoration and regeneration.
The declaration—part of the growing global rights-of-nature movement—also establishes a whale protection fund, outlines a pathway for implementation and sets out measures to protect whales through marine protected areas and management strategies that integrate Indigenous knowledge and scientific data. Polynesian nations and “other interested parties” are invited to adopt the declaration and help carry out its objectives.
“We stand united by our shared responsibility to protect whales for generations to come, fulfilling our role as kaitiaki (guardians) of the ocean and honoring the ancient wisdom that binds us to these magnificent creatures,” the treaty says.
Inside Climate News talked with Daniel Hikuroa, a Māori scholar and Earth systems scientist, about the treaty’s broader implications for environmental governance, humans’ relationship to the rest of the natural world and Indigenous sovereignty.
Hikuroa, who is an associate professor of Māori studies at the University of Auckland, spoke with Inside Climate News before the text of the treaty was released and was not involved with its creation. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
KATIE SURMA: In 2024, Indigenous leaders from the Pacific region signed a treaty—the Declaration for the Ocean (He Whakaputanga Moana)—recognizing whales as legal persons with rights. What is the significance of this?
DANIEL HIKUROA: You had what many refer to as tribal leaders—but who see themselves as Indigenous sovereign nation leaders, and I use those words intentionally—signing up to something drawn entirely from within an Indigenous worldview. Many of the tribal leaders who signed are associated through being from the Māori cultural group.
Māori scientist Daniel Hikuroa.
Many of the signatories to the He Whakaputanga Moana trace their ancestry back through kinship connections. New Zealand, the Cook Islands,