New Zealand’s Mount Taranaki has been granted legal personhood, as part of a settlement by the Crown for its confiscation of the area in the 19th century.
Taranaki, officially known by its Maori name Taranaki Maunga, is the North Island’s second-tallest mountain and a dormant volcano. The mountain and nearly 500,000 hectares of surrounding land were taken by the Crown from the area’s eight Maori iwi in 1856.
“So many people have fought for the recognition of our maunga [mountain] as a tūpuna [ancestor], the reinstatement and the recognition of his proper name. All of these things are coming to fruition today with these final readings of this bill,” said iwi negotiator Liana Poutu.
The settlement bill, which passed in Parliament on Thursday, will rename the national park surrounding the mountain from Egmont National Park to Te Papa-Kura-o-Taranaki. Taranaki was named Mount Egmont by James Cook, before being renamed Mount Taranaki in 1986.
The Crown also apologized for the theft of the land in its settlement. Parliament first agreed to a settlement bill in 2017.
Taranaki and its surrounding land has been given a legal personality known as Te Kāhui Tupua, enabling self-ownership. It will be represented by a new council made up of iwi members and Department of Conservation appointees.
Taranaki is the third natural feature in New Zealand to be given legal personhood status, after the Te Urewera forest region and Whanganui River.
The land will be legally vested in Te Kāhui Tupua, as well as certain minerals, including “industrial rocks and building stones”.
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