Mt. Taranaki, the picturesque volcano that sits at the center of one of New Zealand’s oldest national parks, will effectively “own itself” after the country’s parliament granted it the same legal rights as a person last week.
The unanimous passage of the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill is the end result of years of negotiations between the government and New Zealand’s Māori people to settle claims resulting from decades of colonial land seizures—including the government’s confiscation in 1865 of what would later become the park. The decision reflects the Māori view that the mountain is an ancestor of the local iwi, an extended grouping of communities. On a practical level, the the decision means that those iwi will work together with the government on an evenly-split eight-person commission—half of the members named by the iwi and half by New Zealand’s Department of Conservation—to manage Te Papa-Kura-o-Taranaki (formerly known as Egmont National Park, after the mountain’s colonial name). Māori and non-Native visitors alike will continue to have access to the park.
“Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna [ancestor], Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. Its mana [authority] and mauri [life force] will forever be protected”, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, co-leader of Te Pāti Māori, New Zealand’s main Māori political party, wrote in a statement.
Thick Forest, Soaring Mountain
Last week’s decision further cements protections for Taranaki, the second-highest mountain on New Zealand’s North Island and a popular destination for hikers, skiers, and mountaineers. From the air, the delineation between the mountain and the surrounding farmland is clear, with the national park forming a near-perfect, dark green circle against the light-green rangeland. I have some firsthand experience: In 2018, I and Backpacker’s other editors visited Te Papa-Kura-o-Taranaki during the first leg of that year’s Editors’ Choice trip.
Over the course of a few leisurely days, we covered the 12-mile Pouakai Crossing, which climbed through stretches of viridian “goblin forest” so gnarled and thick it was hard to see through. As we exited the forest onto Taranaki’s scrubby slopes, fog hid the mountain and rain began to fall in sheets, pouring down the cliffs above us in dozens of ephemeral waterfalls. We finally got a view of Taranaki from a small pond early on the last morning, when the clouds peeled back to expose its conical summit. It was one of the most dramatic reveals I’ve been lucky enough to experience in the backcountry.
Taranaki is the third natural feature in New Zealand to gain legal personhood, all three of which are on the North Island. The other two are Te Urewera, an expanse of native forest, and the Whanganui River. While New Zealand’s movement to grant legal standing to natural features has deep roots in its Māori history, the “environmental personhood” movement has made inroads in other countries as well. As Elizabeth Miller reported for Backpacker, Ecuador and Bolivia have passed laws granting certain rights to nature, and activists in the United States have attempted, usually unsuccessfully, to sue on behalf of rivers and mountains.
Video: Taranaki Sunrise
See day dawn on Mt. Taranaki in this video from Backpacker’s 2017 Editors’ Choice Trip.
The post One of New Zealand’s Most Spectacular Mountains Is Now Legally a Person appeared first on Backpacker.
