New Zealand Mountain Granted Legal Personhood: A Historic Move for Māori Rights

Following years of negotiations, New Zealand's Mt Taranaki has been granted legal personhood, empowering local Māori tribes to govern the mountain. This significant legislation aims to address historical grievances stemming from colonization while honoring the Māori belief that natural features are ancestral beings.

New Zealand's Parliament has passed a groundbreaking law granting Mt Taranaki, also known as Taranaki Maunga, the same legal rights as a person. This decision comes after years of negotiations and aims to address historical injustices experienced by the local Māori communities, who consider the mountain sacred and an ancestral entity. With this new status, Mt Taranaki will effectively own itself, with management represented by local iwi (tribes) and the government working collaboratively.

The Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill recognizes the Māori perspective that natural elements, including mountains, embody ancestors and living beings. Paul Goldsmith, the responsible government minister, stated the importance of acknowledging the wrongs of the past to better support the aspirations of the Māori moving forward.

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, co-leader of the political party Te Pāti Māori, expressed the significance of the legislation, celebrating it as a release from historical injustices. The law not only gives the mountain its legal identity but also prohibits its official naming as Egmont—a title assigned during British colonization—reinforcing the cultural importance of the indigenous name Taranaki Maunga.

The settlement reached is part of a broader initiative to rectify breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, which established New Zealand’s constitutional framework and aimed to affirm the rights of indigenous peoples to land and resources. A formal apology from the government for the previous confiscations of Mt Taranaki and vast tracts of native land during the 1860s accompanies this legislation.

While ensuring that access to the mountain remains unchanged for all New Zealanders in perpetuity, the legislation also includes provisions to protect the surrounding national park. This is not the first instance where a natural landmark has been granted legal personhood in New Zealand; the Urewera native forest and Whanganui River have received similar recognitions in previous years, reflecting a growing movement to acknowledge and honor indigenous rights and environmental guardianship in the country.