Aotearoa (New Zealand) Tohorā Oranga Bill: legal personhood of whales

Summary

On 5 February 2026, MP Teanau Tuiono lodged a member’s bill, the Tohorā Oranga Bill, in the New Zealand parliament, seeking to give whales inherent rights. Teanau Tuiono explains that “this bill represents a transformation in how we protect our marine species and the wider moana, to create a law that would protect whales by legally recognising their mana.”

Legal Provisions
The proposed legislation works towards giving effect to He Whakaputanga Moana Declaration of 2024, which was cultivated and signed by Indigenous leaders across the Pacific. The Bill does this through the concept of “te mana o te tohorā”, which it describes as the inherent mana and wairua of tohorā and the fundamental importance of tohorā to the health and well-being of the wider environment. The Bill reflects te mana o te tohorā in five fundamental principles:

• freedom of movement and migration: right to move and migrate freely within their established distribution and migratory routes, and all care must to taken to conserve and respect areas and migratory routes used by whales
• protection of natural behaviours: right to engage in their natural behaviours freely and protected from harm
• protection of social and cultural structures: right to have their unique and complex social and cultural structures and behaviours protected
• right to a healthy environment: right to thrive in a healthy and balanced ecosystem
• right to restoration and regeneration of habits and ecosystem: right to the restoration and regeneration of their habitats and ecosystems

Whales are considered sacred ancestors for many communities across Te Moana Nui a Kiwa. The explanatory note of the bill states “Indigenous Peoples of Te Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa (the Pacific Ocean) have always lived in harmony with the moana (ocean) and its inhabitants. Across the Pacific, many peoples see whales as a sentient beings and ancestors possessing inherent rights. With this unique connection comes generations of indigenous knowledge and histories with whales that informs the identities of many peoples across the Pacific”. The bill also states that whale populations are under threat from commercial fishing, pollution, and climate change, with 22 per cent of whales and other indigenous marine mammals now threatened with extinction.

This effort represents the first to formally introduce legislation to codify the mana and rights of whales in the Pacific. In 2022, the Loyalty Islands Province of New Caledonia had passed legislation to recognize sharks and sea turtles as natural entities subject to rights, including a healthy environment. However, that legislation was later found invalid due to lack of legislative authority.

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