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Why are we gathering?
As space activities expand on the Māhia Peninsula and lunar missions accelerate worldwide, we gather to explore how the Pacific can guide space futures grounded in kaitiakitanga and relational ethics.
Hina Wānanga grows a movement of kōrero and action, weaving relationships of collective care. It offers a space to reflect deeply on protections for the Moon and the whenua of Aotearoa amid the expanding space industry, and to consider how communities can act in solidarity across movements for Land, peoples, and justice.
When is the gathering?
In June 2026, Te Wānanga o Hina is planned as a significant meeting in partnership with Space Place/Carter Observatory, bringing together Māori, Moana Oceania and Pākehā knowledge holders, scientists, policy-makers, and space industry partners. Hosted by Desna Whaanga-Schollum, (Rongomaiwahine) Taipōrutu, Te Māhia-mai-Tawhiti, with co-hosts from Pūtaiao ki te Pāpori | School of Science in Society (Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington), the wānanga builds on Aotearoa’s legal innovation in recognising the personhood of natural entities.
To begin shaping the kaupapa with genuine community involvement and to introduce the mahi and share learning about the rights and laws governing the moon, we are planning some smaller meetings over the next few months, including online meetings that can invite moon activists across the Pacific and beyond.
Rooted in friendship across the seas, the work is intended to nourish creativity and relationships that may protect the Moon and the living worlds she illuminates, comforts, and strengthens, building collaboration and a long-term Pacific network of practitioners, artists, lawyers, scientists and researchers for the protection of the lunar environment and wider celestial relations.
We offer the wānanga to continue legacies of collective action on Land rights and lunar activism, and to come together with collective power across the growing movement for Hina that is growing across the Pacific.
Ngā mihi mahana,
Desna Whaanga-Schollum,
Hon.FRAIC (Rongomaiwahine, Pāhauwera, Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu Matawhaiti ki Māhia), Taipōrutu, Te Māhia-mai-Tawhiti
Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu,
(Molokaʻi Nui a Hina, Kanakaʻaukai, Kanaka ʻŌiwi) Vaʻaomanū Pasifika, Pacific Studies, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington
Kate Genevieve,
Astro Ecologies Institute / Pūtaiao ki te Pāpori Science in Society at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington
Tim Corballis,
Pūtaiao ki te Pāpori / School of Science in Society at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington
Values rooting the work
Wānanga through Relations
The ecological crisis begins in relational imbalance. In Māori knowledge systems, the Moon is understood as an ancestor endowed with mana, encompassing prestige, authority, influence, and spiritual power, and with mauri, the vital life force that animates and connects all living things. By renewing whakapapa and the living ties between whenua/land, moana/ocean, and Hina/moon, our kaupapa follows tikanga Māori and Pacific protocols, operating in aroha – sharing breath, energy and wairua.
Dialogue across Oceans and Understandings
Our lunar kaupapa invites intergenerational dialogue, honouring those who came before, whilst nurturing the wellbeing of human and more-than-human communities, in order that knowledge and lunar relationship endures for future generations.
Imagination and Storytelling
Across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, all beings are creative; imagination, storytelling and collective meaning-making welcome all into work that is guided by tikanga and Indigenous Storywork principles, welcoming lived experience, embodied wellbeing and feeling and emotion into the work of longterm transformation.
Law and Constitution through a Pacific lens
Te Tiriti-led approaches to lunar governance takes up the precedent of law in Aotearoa that affirm natural entities as whole beings, carrying both rights and corresponding human responsibilities. Across Pacific solidarities, from Māhia to Mauna Kea, we gather to affirm the rights of nature and Pacific protocol on guardianship grounded in moral precedent, manaakitanga, and relational accountability.
- Perspectives on the Rights of the Moon from Oceania - initial work presented at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), 2024
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Declaration for the Rights of the Moon - drafted by the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), 2021
To deepen understanding of the values that guide Te Wānanga o Hina, we invite you to read Aroha Mai ~ Aroha Atu by Lara Taylor, Kathryn Gale, Alison Greenaway, and Desna Whaanga-Schollum.Read the article on Pantograph Punch