A mountain in New Zealand, considered a native ancestor, was recognized as a legal person on Thursday, with law granting him all the rights and responsibilities of a … man.

Mount Taranaki – now known as Taranaki Maunga, such as the name of Maori – is the last natural element to which the status of the face in New Zealand is granted. In the past a similar decision has been made for a river and a sacred land.

The Virgo, snowy inert volcano is the second tallest on the northern island of New Zealand and is a popular spot for tourism, hiking and sports in the snow.

Now, the law recognizes the theft of the mountain by the Maori of the Taranaki area after the colonization of New Zealand.

It also fulfills an agreement by the country’s government to the natives, for the damage committed against the earth since then.

How can a man become a mountain?

As CNN reports, the law passed on Thursday gives (s) Taranaki Maunga all the rights, powers, duties, responsibilities and obligations of a person.

The mountain is regarded as “a living and indivisible whole” and includes the Taranaki and its surrounding peaks and land, “incorporating all their physical and metaphysical elements”.

Four members by the local breeds They will be appointed will be “the face and the voice of the mountain”.

Why is this mountain so special?

‘The mountain has been a long time a honored ancestora source of physical, cultural and mental nutrition and a place of final rest ‘, said Paul Goldsmith, the legislator who is responsible for the settlements between the government and the Maori tribes in Parliament in his speech on Thursday.

The settlers of New Zealand in the 18th and 19th centuries first took the name Taranaki and then the mountain itself. In 1770, the British explorer Captain James Cook found the top from his ship and named Mount Egmond.

In 1840, the Maori tribes and representatives of the British Crown signed the Watangki Treaty – New Zealand’s founding document – in which the crown promised that Maori would retain their rights to land and their resources. However, this was not adhered to.

In 1865, a huge area of ​​Taranaki’s land, including the mountain, was seized to punish Maori for the crown uprising.

During the next century, hunting and athletic teams had a say in mountain management, not Maori.

“Mountain -related Maori practices were banned, while tourism was promoted,” Goldsmith said.

It was followed by a protest movement of the Maori of the 70s’ and 80s that led to a wave of recognition of Maori’s language, culture and rights in New Zealand legislation.

The rehabilitation included billions of dollars in settlements of the Weitangki Treaty.

How will the mountain use its rights?

“Today, our taranaki, our maunga, our Maunga Tupuna, is released by the bonds, the bonds of injustice, of ignorance, of hatred”, said Debbie Ngareva Packer, co-head of the political party Te Pāti Māori and descendant of the Tribes mountain.

“We grew up knowing that there was nothing that one could do to make us less connected”he added.

The legal rights of the mountain are intended to maintain its health and well -being. They will be used to stop sales, restore its traditional uses and allow the maintenance and protection of wildlife that thrives there.

The public will, however, be able to visit it.

New Zealand was the first country in the world to recognize elements of nature as humans. A law passed in 2014 recognized as a human being Te Urewera, a huge native forest on the northern island. State ownership ceased to exist and the Tūhoe race became its guardian.

Then, in 2017, New Zealand also recognized the Whanganui River as a human being.

Edited by: Anastasia Kitsikosta