A settlement that will give New Zealand Māori the same legal rights as a person has become law after years of negotiations.

It means Taranaki Māwanga [Māori Taranaki] will effectively become their own, with local tribes, Iwi and the government working together to manage it.

The agreement aims to compensate Māori in the Taranaki region for the injustices they suffered during colonisation – including extensive land confiscation.

“We must acknowledge the harm caused by past wrongs so that Iwi can look to the future to support their own aspirations and opportunities,”

said Paul Goldsmith, the government minister responsible for the negotiations.

The Taranaki Maunga Collective Relief Bill was passed into law by the New Zealand parliament on Thursday – giving the mountain a legal name and protecting its surrounding peaks and lands.

It also recognises the Maori worldview that natural features, including mountains, are ancestral and living beings.

“Today, Taranaki, our maunga [mountain], our maunga tupuna [mountain of the ancestors], is free from the shackles of injustice, ignorance, hatred,” said Debbie Nagarewa-Packer, co-leader of the Te Pati Māori political party [Maori Party].

Nagarewa-Packer, one of eight Taranaki iwi on New Zealand’s west coast, holds the mountain sacred.

Hundreds of other Maori from the region turned out for parliament on Thursday to see the bill become law.

The mountain will no longer be officially known as Egmont – the name given to it by British explorer James Cook in the 18th century – but will instead be known as Taranaki Maunga, and the surrounding national park will also be given its Māori name.

Aisha Campbell, a member of the Taranaki Ivy tribe, told 1News that attending the ceremony was important to her, saying the mountain “connects us and binds us together as a people”.

The Taranaki Maunga Settlement is the latest agreement reached with Māori in an attempt to provide compensation for breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, which established New Zealand as a country and gave indigenous people certain rights to their lands and resources.

The agreement also included an apology from the government for the confiscation of Māori and more than a million acres of land from local Māori in the 1860s.

“Taranaki’s whano [extended family], hapu [sub-tribe] and iwi have suffered massive and complex damage over decades due to treaty breaches, causing immeasurable harm,” Paul Goldsmith acknowledged.

It was agreed that access to the mountain would remain intact and that “all New Zealanders will be able to visit and enjoy this wonderful place for generations to come.”

The mountain is not the first natural feature to be granted legal personality in New Zealand.

In 2014, the Urewera Native Forest became the first to achieve such status, followed by the Whanganui River in 2017.