This article was first published by RNZ
The residents of the Tonga island group of Vava’u are promising to honour the late Māori king’s call for whales to be given personhood.
Vava’u is one of the few places in the world where tourists can swim with whales.
Earlier this year, Māori and Pacific leaders signed a declaration called He Whakaputanga Moana, giving whales rights, including the freedom of movement, a healthy environment and the restoration of their populations.
“The sound of her song is getting weaker, and her way of life is under threat, which is why we must act now,” the late Kiingi Tuheitia Te Pootatau Te Wherowhero tetua fitu said in April.
Just a few months before his death, Kiingi Tuheitia stood with indigenous Pacific leaders, explaining why He Whakaputanga Moana (the Declaration for the Ocean) was so important.
“The sounds of the Tohorā now are under attack, pollution, ship strikes and the changing tides of our planet,” the king said.
A whale-watching guide in Vava’u, Siaki Siosifa Fauvao, told RNZ Pacific his community was committed to safeguarding the mammals.
“We will protect the whale. The whale is like a family to the Tongan people,” Fauvao said,
He said the operators would honour the king’s call.
“For as long as we live, that’s what we [are] going to do. That was the King’s order and that’s what we are going to do.”
One of the late Māori King’s closest advisors, Rahui Papa, said the Pacific Ocean was not just a body of water but a connector and so are whales.
“That’s something that has been solidified by Kiingi Tuheitia in his life, so that will be something that will be a legacy matter that we will uphold.”
He said real change comes when people are guided by “ancestral intelligence”.
“With our mātauranga (knowledge), we could provide solutions to things like climate change, protecting the whales, things like how do we clean up the Moana?
“We think that ancestrally, the moana was so very important to all of us,” Papa said.
“We have some solutions to be able to do that, not in a political sense, but in a cultural and ancestral sense.”
Vava’u onboard
People living in Vava’u have strong ties with whales because they see them daily, the tourism ministry’s destination development division director Anthony Cocker said.
“Whale watching is the main industry here,” he said, adding “We call it the pearl of Tonga.”
Vava’u whale-watching enforcement officer Suliasi Ofa explained how back in the old days “whaling” occurred.
“Nowadays they’ve completely turned around from the aspect where whale was a source of food, so it’s a source of income,” Ofa said.
“We know the importance of keeping the industry regulated.”
Earlier in 2024 a rare white whalewhale-watching was spotted in Vava’u, something Ofa said is very rare.
He said to some it was a sign good was to come.
Pacific leaders were in Vava’u for the Pacific Islands Forum summit, when news broke of Kiingi’s death, at the end of August.
As they boarded a whale-watching boat guided by Siaki Siosifa Fauvao, they reflected on the Kings life.
Just days later, a group of Pacific community leaders in New Zealand travelled to Turangawaewae to pay their respects at Kiingi Tuheitia’s tangi.
For some, his death made his hopes for the survival of whales in the Pacific even more poignant as they remembered his words.
“This declaration is for our mokopuna, our future generations, they deserve to inherit an ocean full of life,” the late Kiingi Tuheitia said.
By Lydia Lewis of RNZ