“The river is the biggest player in who I am,” says Māori elder Ned Tapa. “Our trip is about us as people coming together; it’s about saving rivers, saving the planet.”

It’s hard to imagine anyone who watches this film disagreeing that the Whanganui River is worthy of saving. Flowing across 290km through the heart of Aotearoa’s North Island and surrounded by lush rainforest, it is breathtakingly beautiful, its fast-flowing current and inky depths exuding an almost other-worldly lure.

Tapa’s Whanganui Iwi have a deep spiritual connection and ancestral relationship with the river, which they consider a living being. This was recognised by a bill passed by the New Zealand Government in 2017 that “confers a legal personality on the Whanganui River”, giving it the same rights as a person and thereby ensuring its future protection.

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I Am the River, The River is Me doesn’t recount in detail the campaign or legal process surrounding this recognition (although it does include brief footage of the parliamentary process and an exceptionally moving video of the iwi singing waiata after the bill passed its third reading). Rather, it gives audiences an understanding of – and feel for – the river. It helps us appreciate this body of water in a new way.

Filmmaking couple Corinne van Egeraat and Petr Lom, based in the Netherlands, were inspired to make the documentary after reading news stories about the river’s personhood status and meeting Tapa on a visit to New Zealand. For their five-day journey along the Whanganui in a pair of canoes, they are joined by a crew including Ned’s friend and nephew, as well as Australian First Nations elder and activist Brendan Kennedy and his daughter Melissa, Australian artist Justine Muller, and Ned’s delightful dog Jimmy.

Tapa is a thoroughly entertaining guide on this voyage, joking at the outset that he hasn’t had a waka (canoe) tip over – “yet”. But he turns serious when talking about how this sacred river was polluted in the past by raw sewage and factory run-off. He and Brendan Kennedy discover many similarities between their two cultures, especially in their relationship to Country; Māori see themselves as guardians of the river, Tapa explains, not owners.

The cinematography (Lom) is mesmerising: from expansive shots of clouds drifting over forests and drone footage of the canoes travelling down the river, to cascading waterfalls, the sun’s rays illuminating an oar underwater, and close-ups of a dragonfly wing and a rivulet trickling down a rockface. As well as the ever-present birdsong, the storytelling is enhanced by the music of Māori composer and sound artist Puoro Jerome, who plays various taonga pūoro (traditional instruments) in locations along the river.

The filmmakers hope I Am the River, The River is Me will act as a call to action for the “rights of nature”, with Kennedy telling the audience in a Q&A after the Adelaide Film Festival screening that it provides a pathway to advocate for the rights of Australian rivers such as the Murray.

“You have rivers and lakes and seas in your own country,” Tapa says in the film. “Go home and look after your water.”

I Am the River, The River is Me is screening again on November 2 at the Piccadilly as part of the 2024 Adelaide Film Festival.