After extensive negotiations, a law has been passed granting a New Zealand Mountain the same legal rights as an individual.
This means Taranaki Maunga [Mountain Taranaki] will essentially govern itself, with representatives from local tribes, Iwi, and the government collaborating to manage it.
The agreement seeks to address the historical injustices faced by Māori in the Taranaki area during colonisation, which included significant land confiscations.
New Zealand’s parliament enacted the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill on Thursday, providing the mountain with a legal name and safeguarding its surrounding peaks and territory. It also acknowledges the Māori perspective that natural features, such as mountains, are considered ancestors and living entities.
“Today, Taranaki, our maunga [mountain], our maunga tupuna [ancestral mountain], is liberated from the shackles of injustice, ignorance, and hate,” stated Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, co-leader of the political party Te Pāti Māori [the Māori Party].
Ngarewa-Packer is one of the representatives from the eight Taranaki iwi on New Zealand’s west coast, who hold the mountain sacred. Many other Māori from the region gathered at parliament on Thursday to witness the bill’s passage into law.
The mountain will henceforth be officially known as Taranaki Maunga, removing the name Egmont, given by British explorer James Cook in the 18th Century; the adjoining national park will also be referred to by its Māori title.
The Taranaki Maunga settlement represents the latest agreement made with Māori as part of efforts to provide recompense for violations of the Treaty of Waitangi, which formed the foundation of New Zealand as a nation and granted Indigenous people specific rights to their land and resources.
The settlement also includes a government apology for confiscating Mt Taranaki and over a million acres of land from the local Māori during the 1860s.
The mountain is not the first natural feature in New Zealand to receive legal personhood. In 2014, the Urewera native forest was the first to obtain this status, followed by the Whanganui River in 2017.
