A River with Personhood: Witi Ihimaera’s Novel
Identification
- Public canonical key
- doi:10.14361/9783839433409-009
- Authors
- Mita Banerjee · Dieter Dörr
- Reported year
- 2026
- Reported language
- de
- Source type
- book-chapter
- First detected
- 2026-11-09T19:04:47.918181+00:00
- Last metadata observation
- 2026-11-09T19:12:09.457797+00:00
- Last HTTP verification
- Not checked
Documentary abstract — original language
In this article Witi Ihimaera's "The Whale Rider" (1987) is situated in two contexts in particular: in the methodology of law and literature studies and the emerging field of the so-called Blue Humanities.By connecting literary studies with legal scholarship, the aim is to re-read the novel to show that it anticipates some of the most important and urgent developments of our time.These developments, in turn, are both context-specific and globally relevant: In New Zealand, Māori and Pākehā communities continue to be in dialogue about the meaning of reconciliation, about how to come to terms with New Zealand's history as a former settler colonial state.This includes reconciling Māori and Pākehā epistemologies when it comes to environmental protection.This article looks at how in New Zealand, a recent court decision wrote Māori epistemology into law by giving the status of personhood to a river.The authors situate this court decision in the legal history pertaining to bodies of water and show how Ihimaera's novel can in fact be said to anticipate this decision.
Identifiers
- OPENALEX
- W7120102184
- DOI
- 10.14361/9783839433409-009
Documentary context
- Documentary family
- Book chapter
- Source-reported types
- book-chapter
- Jurisdictions studied — explicit sources
- NZ
- Natural entities mentioned
- River
Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.
Book bibliographic description
Access status unknown
Sources
OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2
Documented bibliographic relations
Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.
0 incoming references within the detected corpus
Documentary field provenance
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- Title
- Documentary source reported
- Publication
- Documentary source reported
- Authors
- Documentary source reported
- Document type
- Documentary source reported
- Jurisdiction
- Studied subject derived from explicit documentary context
- Court
- Not recorded
- Issuing authority
- Not recorded
- Publisher
- Not recorded
- DOI
- Documentary source reported
- ISBN
- Not recorded
- Official identifier
- Not recorded
- Source URL
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- Source-reported status
- Not recorded
- Amendment / repeal
- Not recorded
Cite this reference
Mita Banerjee; Dieter Dörr. A River with Personhood: Witi Ihimaera’s Novel. 2026. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839433409-009
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APA, Chicago, ISO 690: bibliographic formats using available fields. OSCOLA / Bluebook: structured data only; full legal citation compliance is not claimed without verification of required elements.
- APA
- Mita Banerjee; Dieter Dörr. (2026). A River with Personhood: Witi Ihimaera’s Novel. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839433409-009
- Chicago
- Mita Banerjee; Dieter Dörr. A River with Personhood: Witi Ihimaera’s Novel. 2026. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839433409-009
- ISO 690
- Mita Banerjee; Dieter Dörr. A River with Personhood: Witi Ihimaera’s Novel. 2026. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839433409-009
UDTR Global Rights of Nature Legal Library. A River with Personhood: Witi Ihimaera’s Novel. Documentary record: https://www.declarationuniverselledesdroitsdelarbre.org/global-rights-of-nature-radar/reference/r-c2bd77cd32357cd4ea55a14269c80f6e/ · Last HTTP verification: not performed
Field provenance and record version
Version 55392ffb3e340246 · udtr-reference-1.1.2
- Title
- OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:12:09.457797+00:00
- Authors
- OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:12:09.457797+00:00
- Year
- OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:12:09.457797+00:00
- Identifiers
- OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:12:09.457797+00:00
- Source URL
- OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:12:09.457797+00:00
- Source-reported author ORCID
- OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:12:09.457797+00:00
History tracks record metadata and does not certify the state of the law.
6fccce13d67c87db · 2026-11-09T19:12:09.457797+00:00
864ba6722ec00074 · 2026-11-09T19:12:09.457797+00:00
97327764b25f8209 · 2026-11-09T19:12:09.457797+00:00
55392ffb3e340246 · 2026-11-09T19:12:09.457797+00:00
Research dossiers and documentary relations
NZ ·
Source roles
Discovery source · https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839433409-009
Discovery source · https://openalex.org/W7120102184
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Documentary status
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Library
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