A settlement has made New Zealand’s Taranaki Maunga mountain a person with legal rights. This comes after years of negotiations and aims to compensate Māori from the region for injustices during colonization, including land confiscation.
The agreement will allow representatives of local tribes, iwi, and government to work together to manage the mountain. It also recognizes the Māori worldview that natural features are ancestors and living beings. The mountain’s name has been changed from Egmont to Taranaki Maunga, which reflects its cultural significance.
The settlement is part of a broader effort to provide compensation for breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, which established New Zealand as a country and granted indigenous people certain rights. An apology was issued by the government for the confiscation of land from local Māori in the 1860s.
Access to the mountain will not change, but the settlement aims to support the aspirations and opportunities of local iwi. The agreement comes after similar settlements were reached with other natural features, including a native forest in 2014 and a river in 2017.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czep8gg5lx4o