A New Zealand mountain has been granted personhood by parliament after years of almost a decade of settlement negotiations, local media announced Friday.
Mount Taranaki — now known as Taranaki Maunga, its Māori name – has long been considered an ancestor by Indigenous people, according to NPR, and now has “all the rights and responsibilities of a human being.”
The BBC further explained that Taranaki Maunga will now effectively own itself, with members of local tribes and government working together to maintain the site.
"We must acknowledge the hurt that has been caused by past wrongs, so we can look to the future to support iwi to realise their own aspirations and opportunities," Paul Goldsmith, the government minister responsible for the negotiations, said in the House.
According to the New Zealand Herald, Taranaki Maunga was seized by the Crown in 1865, along with 1.2 million acres of Taranaki land, following years of war between the Crown and Māori.
The Crown issued an apology for taking the land
Alongside the settlement, the Crown issued an apology for the confiscation of the land.
“The Crown formally and publicly recognizes the hardship and heartache it has caused whānau and hapū, and recognizes the resilience of Ngā Iwi o Taranaki in the face of such adversity,” said Paul Goldsmith, the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations. “We must acknowledge the hurt that has been caused by past wrongs, so we can look to the future to support iwi to realize their own aspirations and opportunities.”
Hundreds of Māori from the area turned up at parliament to see the bill passed into law.
"Today, Taranaki, our maunga [mountain], our maunga tupuna [ancestral mountain], is released from the shackles, the shackles of injustice, of ignorance, of hate," said Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, co-leader of political party Te Pāti Māori [the Māori Party].