Antarctica’s Human Connection

Long before the days of famed explorers Ernest Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen, there were other humans who traversed the frigid waters around the mysterious Antarctic continent.

Oral histories, as well as carvings and weavings, tell the tales of the Polynesian navigator and Maori chief Hui te Rangiora being one of the first to sail through Antarctic waters in around 650 A.D. The stories tell of his group witnessing the aurora australis, the southern version of the aurora borealis.

Archaeologists in the subantarctic islands have found human tools and artifacts dating back to at least the 14th century, proving that this region of the world wasn’t as unknown as previously thought; it was only to the Western world that it was largely undiscovered and unexplored.

Antarctica today is owned by no single country, due to the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, created by Western nations; only researchers live there. Even so, some countries have tried to exploit it by fishing and mining under the guise of scientific research.

The question of how Antarctica should be shaped and impacted by humans is a global question, perhaps the first truly global ecological and geographical question posed. Since it is inhabited by no one and is considered not only crucial to the Earth and the creatures that depend upon the continent, the responsibility for safeguarding its future is critical.

Some historians, scholars and researchers are looking back towards the Maori to try to answer the question of the continent’s future. New Zealand, where many Maori have lived for centuries and still continue to preserve their cultures today, is working to foster a greater integration between ancient traditions and knowledge with scientific research.

In New Zealand, legal personhood was granted to certain environmentally or geographically important features, like Mount Taranaki or the Whanganui River. This idea of providing legal personhood to these places stems from the Maori concept of kaitiakitanga, or the relationship of humans with humans and of humans with the environment, which are both reciprocal and respectful relationships.

With each place of feature with legal personhood, a group of individuals are granted the responsibility to be the guardians and caretakers of the land, who speak on behalf of the place’s or feature’s best interests.

New Zealand conservation biologist Priscilla Wehi advocates for this same legal personhood to be granted to Antarctica. While the push for the continent’s legal personhood is a hard one since it does not belong to any one nation, it could one day set a precedent for a truly global decision-making community.

Atlas Ocean Adventures offers the opportunity to discover both the history and the emotional connection of Antarctica aboard one of its expeditions to Antarctica.