Its name, Rotomairewhenua, was given by the Ngāti Apa, a local Māori tribe. The name’s meaning: the lake of peaceful lands. To New Zealanders, and to the Māori, the small body of water is sacred and ...

On the windswept stretch of Koekohe Beach along New Zealand’s Otago coast, a group of massive, spherical rocks has been ...

Mount Taranaki — now known as Taranaki Maunga, its Maori name — is the latest natural feature to be granted personhood in New Zealand, which has ruled that a river and a stretch of sacred land ...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A mountain in New Zealand considered an ancestor by indigenous people was recognized as a legal person on Thursday after a new law granted it all the rights and ...

New Zealand was the first country in the world to recognize natural features as people when a law passed in 2014 granted personhood to Te Urewera, a vast native forest on the North Island.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A mountain in New Zealand considered an ancestor by Indigenous people was recognized as a legal person on Thursday after a new law granted it all the rights and ...

A mountain in New Zealand considered an ancestor by Indigenous people was recognized as a legal person on Thursday after a new law granted it all the rights and responsibilities of a human being.

A New Zealand Mountain Is Granted Personhood, Recognizing It as Sacred for Māori WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A mountain in New Zealand considered an ancestor by Indigenous people was ...