Whanganui leader speaks at Brisbane symposium

Whanganui River Settlement negotiator Gerrard Albert. Photo/File

Gerrard Albert is to speak to an international symposium about how the governance of the Whanganui River came to be returned to the river itself.

He will be one of four keynote speakers at the 20th International Riversymposium in Brisbane on September 18-20.

His talk is titled Tupua Te Kawa: The journey to return the Whanganui River to the Whanganui River.

It will outline how Te Atihaunui a Paparangi struggled to have their primary relationship with the river recognised for 150 years.

In 2008 it "unselfishly decided" to use its Treaty of Waitangi settlement to share its innate relationship with the river with all communities.

The result has been an innovative framework that returns governance of the river to the river itself. The river becomes a legal person, known as Te Awa Tupua, and two yet-to-be announced people become the human face of it.

"The river can now speak for itself and promote, advocate and defend its health and wellbeing," Mr Albert said.

"Where might this approach lead us?"

Mr Albert is of the Ngā Paerangi and Ngāti Tuera hapū of the Whanganui River. He's a graduate of his iwi's whare wānanga - tribal houses of knowledge - and has been guided by its leaders all his life.

Between 2008 and 2016 he led the technical aspects of Whanganui River Settlement negotiations between the river tribes and the New Zealand Government. The settlement was signed in August 2014, and passed into law in March this year.

The Ngā Tangata Tiaki Trust is tasked with implementing the settlement, and Mr Albert is its chairman. He has had more than 20 years' working experience on Whanganui region environmental and resource management issues.