Mount Taranaki, a dormant volcano known to the Maori indigenous people as Taranaki Maunga, is now legally considered a person in New Zealand.
Under a new bill, Taranaki Maunga was granted personhood after it was unanimously affirmed by the 123 lawmakers of the New Zealand Parliament.
The 2,500m high volcano is seen by the country's indigenous Maori people as an ancestor and a sacred mountain. A source of cultural and spiritual sustenance.
The bill acknowledges that the British colonisers took the volcano from the native people and gives the tribes a greater say in maintaining it.
Four people from local Maori tribes will be assigned to form an entity that will act as the mountain's "face" and " voice."
Interestingly, the volcano is the third natural feature of New Zealand to be legally recognised as a person, along with Te Urewera forest, the first natural feature in the world to be recognised as a person and the Whanganui River.
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