ERENA RANGIMARIE OMAKI RANSFIELD RHÖSE ° The Water Inside Us

The Whanganui stream in Aotearoa (New Zealand) is the first river worldwide that was granted legal personhood – a victory of the Maori people and their intimate connection to the country of their ancestors. The Whanganui Act’s point 12 declares that “Te Awa Tupua is an indivisible and living whole, comprising the Whanganui River from the mountains to the sea, incorporating all its physical and metaphysical elements.” In a ritualistic contribution Erena Rangimarie Omaki Ransfield Rhöse, as a daughter of the river, raises awareness of the value and sacredness of water and the reconnection with Mother Earth.

Part of Episode XXIX: “The Right to Flow: Water as Source of Life, Conflict, and Legal Utopias”
With Edson Krenak Naknunuk, Erena Rangimarie Omaki Ransfield Rhöse, Kathrin Röggla, Elisabeth von Samsonow & Florian Malzacher

21. September 2024 – Tangente Festival St. Pölten / Austria
In the frame of the exhibition “The Way of the Water”

Biography

Erena Rangimarie Omaki Ransfield Rhöse is a Maori woman native to Aotearoa (New Zealand), who has lived in Sweden for 30 years. Her Maori name means ‘flying, hopping peace star’. Erena Rangimarie Omaki Ransfield Rhöse is the daughter of paramount chiefs of the Ngati Kahungunu, Raukawa, and member of the royal family from the Waikato tribe. She is a guardian carrier of tribal knowledge and a doctor of traditional Maori medicine. She has been invited to speak at conferences across many countries about her cultural concept of the earth and lectures at Karlstad University on the subject of ecology-philosophy (ekosofi). Erena Rangimarie Omaki Ransfield Rhöse is an independent Knowledge Network Expert at the United Nations (Harmony with Nature).