The article mentions Te Uruwera and the Wanganui river but Tāne Mahuta 'Lord of the Forest' - New Zealand's largest known living kauri tree could be argued to p

The article mentions Te Uruwera and the Wanganui river but Tāne Mahuta 'Lord of the Forest' - New Zealand's largest known living kauri tree could be argued to personhood more clear-case (IMO) than any river or forest. It's not yet been granted such status but watch this space as it's somewhat of a no-brainer assuming the old geezer doesn't expire from old age/Kauri dieback beforehand. The cynic in me believes it hasn't yet attained this status only because no individual interests exist to bring the necessary legal precedings. Concepts of personhood and ownership are difficult to pin down in the context of NZ's bi-cultural society and history. Spend time sympathetically observing and you'll likely come to see everything through a kind of cultural bifocal - The western interpretation as seen in TFA constitute a legal definition of personhood and boards being established to provide a voice for Te Uruwera and the Wanganui river respectively. This might make sense to a western observer but in Maoridom the view is not so prescriptive and any attempt to cement the meaning of (what I understand as) a physical manifestation of the god that birthed mankind itself gets quite weird quite quickly. We're yet to fully appreciate the ramifications of this approach because the legal groundwork as mentioned in TFA only really sets the stage for legal challenges - eventually case precedents will follow and they will provide clearer groundwork. My hot take is that we're already seeing major flaws with the use of boards to manifest voice and agency - They are vulnerabile to being used to advance the interests of individuals or (at best) whole tribes - These interests don't even represent a consolidated will of Maori peoples as a whole (and if such a viewpoint could ever be gathered, the jury is out). It's fascinating to see this as a microcosm of fulfilling te tiriti, wherein the duality of interpretation of the founding legal documents of the nation - produced and signed in two different languages, neither of which actually agree with each other (BIG OOF) continue to provide wicked popcorn-fodder even today. At its core as best I can surmise: There is no accurate translation of mana or mauri to be found; all else follows.