This Pristine Canadian River Has Legal Personhood, a New Approach To Conserving Nature

New documentary examines how a Quebec river became a person under the law and how that protects it from harm

A swoosh of raven wings echo in the crisp air. Beaver claws scratch against the rocks on the shoreline. The ice blockade upriver groans and creaks against the rising waters. It’s springtime at the Magpie River.

This stretch of water is known as the Muteshekau-shipu by the Innu, the first peoples whose traditional lands surround it. The river is a vital part of their cultural identity.

“Our grandmothers went down the river; they went down the rapids,” Jean-Charles Piétacho, chief of the Innu of Ekuanitshit, says in French in the new film I Am the Magpie River, a documentary from The Nature of Things. “The Magpie is one of the only rivers that is supposed to stay as it is.”

In 2021, this river was granted legal personhood to protect its pristine waters. The documentary considers the impact of this decision and how it could ensure the Magpie’s mighty waters continue to flow freely for the people and wildlife that depend on them.