Te Awa Tupua
E426031
Te Awa Tupua is the Māori name and legal personhood concept for the Whanganui River, embodying it as an indivisible living whole with spiritual and cultural significance to local iwi (tribes).
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Te Awa Tupua canonical | 6 |
| Te Pā Auroa nā Te Awa Tupua | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4287044 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Te Awa Tupua Context triple: [Whanganui River, MāoriName, Te Awa Tupua]
-
A.
Te Arawa
Te Arawa is a major Māori iwi (tribal confederation) of the central North Island of New Zealand, renowned for its rich cultural traditions, historical significance, and strong association with the Rotorua region.
-
B.
Te Kowhai
Te Kowhai is a small rural settlement in the Waikato region of New Zealand, located just northwest of Hamilton.
-
C.
Te Kā
Te Kā is the fiery lava demon and corrupted form of the goddess Te Fiti who serves as the main antagonist in Disney's animated film "Moana."
-
D.
Pukematawai
Pukematawai is a prominent mountain peak in New Zealand’s Tararua Range, popular with trampers for its alpine views and role as a key point on the main range route.
-
E.
Ngāti Ranginui
Ngāti Ranginui is a Māori iwi (tribe) of Aotearoa New Zealand traditionally based around Tauranga Moana in the Bay of Plenty region.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Te Awa Tupua Target entity description: Te Awa Tupua is the Māori name and legal personhood concept for the Whanganui River, embodying it as an indivisible living whole with spiritual and cultural significance to local iwi (tribes).
-
A.
Te Arawa
Te Arawa is a major Māori iwi (tribal confederation) of the central North Island of New Zealand, renowned for its rich cultural traditions, historical significance, and strong association with the Rotorua region.
-
B.
Te Kowhai
Te Kowhai is a small rural settlement in the Waikato region of New Zealand, located just northwest of Hamilton.
-
C.
Te Kā
Te Kā is the fiery lava demon and corrupted form of the goddess Te Fiti who serves as the main antagonist in Disney's animated film "Moana."
-
D.
Pukematawai
Pukematawai is a prominent mountain peak in New Zealand’s Tararua Range, popular with trampers for its alpine views and role as a key point on the main range route.
-
E.
Ngāti Ranginui
Ngāti Ranginui is a Māori iwi (tribe) of Aotearoa New Zealand traditionally based around Tauranga Moana in the Bay of Plenty region.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Māori legal concept
ⓘ
environmental legal personhood ⓘ legal person ⓘ river ⓘ |
| embodiesConcept |
kinship between people and river
ⓘ
river as an indivisible living whole ⓘ |
| flowsInto | Tasman Sea ⓘ |
| governedBy | Te Awa Tupua framework established in 2017 ⓘ |
| hasAssociatedIwi |
Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi
ⓘ
Whanganui iwi ⓘ |
| hasAttribute |
possesses its own mana (authority, prestige)
ⓘ
possesses its own mauri (life force) ⓘ |
| hasCulturalConcept | awa tupua (sacred river with its own mana) ⓘ |
| hasCulturalSignificanceFor | local Māori iwi ⓘ |
| hasFund | Te Korotete fund for the health and wellbeing of Te Awa Tupua ⓘ |
| hasGuardianAppointment | jointly appointed by the Crown and iwi ⓘ |
| hasGuardianRole | human face of Te Awa Tupua ⓘ |
| hasGuardians | Te Pou Tupua ⓘ |
| hasHistoricalContext | long-running legal and political struggle by Whanganui iwi ⓘ |
| hasKeyPrinciple | Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au (I am the river, and the river is me) ⓘ |
| hasLanguageOfName | Māori ⓘ |
| hasLegalRecognition | Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 ⓘ |
| hasLegalStatus |
indivisible and living whole
ⓘ
legal personhood ⓘ |
| hasLength | about 290 km ⓘ |
| hasManagementFramework |
Te Pā Auroa nā Te Awa Tupua
ⓘ
linked to:
Te Awa Tupua
|
| hasName |
Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River)
ⓘ
linked to:
Whanganui River
Whanganui River ⓘ |
| hasPurpose |
to protect the health and wellbeing of the Whanganui River
ⓘ
to recognise the river as an ancestor for Whanganui iwi ⓘ |
| hasRights |
right to be enhanced
ⓘ
right to be maintained ⓘ right to be protected ⓘ right to be restored ⓘ rights similar to a legal person ⓘ |
| hasSettlementContext | Whanganui River Treaty of Waitangi claims settlement ⓘ |
| hasSourceLocation | Mount Tongariro area ⓘ |
| hasSpiritualSignificanceFor | local Māori iwi ⓘ |
| hasWorldviewBasis |
Māori cosmology
ⓘ
Māori tikanga (customary law) ⓘ |
| isComparableTo |
legal personhood of Río Atrato in Colombia
ⓘ
legal personhood of rivers in India ⓘ |
| isPrecedentFor | global environmental personhood debates ⓘ |
| legalRecognitionYear | 2017 ⓘ |
| legalSystem | New Zealand law ⓘ |
| locatedInCountry | New Zealand ⓘ |
| locatedInIsland | North Island ⓘ |
| locatedInRegion | Whanganui ⓘ |
| mouthLocation | near Whanganui city ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Te Awa Tupua Description of subject: Te Awa Tupua is the Māori name and legal personhood concept for the Whanganui River, embodying it as an indivisible living whole with spiritual and cultural significance to local iwi (tribes).
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Te Awa Tupua