Along with the Māori of New Zealand and groups from the Cook Islands, Indigenous leaders from Tahiti, Tonga, Hawaii, and Easter Island signed the He Whakaputanga Moana treaty. In the coming months, she plans to engage with various countries throughout the Pacific to discuss whale personhood legislation. The Cook Islands office said it had “yet to receive a formal submission” from indigenous leaders on the declaration’s implementation. Māori King Tūheitia Pōtatau and Tou Travel Ariki, Cook Islands President of the House of Ariki, at the signing of the He Whakaputanga Moana declaration in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. This came after a global ban on commercial whaling was instituted by the International Whaling Commission in 1986.

---

Persons: Mere, “, Tūheitia Pōtatau, Josh Baker, ” March’s, ”, Takoko, Britain’s King Charles III, Moana, Māori, Michelle Bender, ” Bender, Carlos Duarte, Ralph Chami, Chami, Miguel Medina, ” Chami, Duarte, Emily Charry Tissier, Charry Tissier, ” Duarte Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, Easter, Conservation, Fund, Nature, Conservation International Aotearoa, Ocean Initiative, New Zealand, Nations, New, Commonwealth, CNN, RNZ, New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade, ’ Office, International Whaling Commission, Ocean, King Abdullah University of Science, Technology, Bahia, Natural, Getty, “, International Monetary Fund, Initiative, United Nations Locations: Hong Kong, Rangitukia, New Zealand’s, Cook, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Tahiti, Tonga, Hawaii, Moana, Rarotonga, Atlantic, New, Te Whānau, Pacific, Samoa, Whanganui, “, Zealand, , New Zealand, Wellington, Seattle, Japan, Washington ,, Bahia Malaga, Colombia, AFP