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This year in Aotearoa, also known as New Zealand, the mountain Taranaki Maunga was recognized as a legal person because the Maori see it as an ancestor.

"Aotearoa is regularly used as a name of New Zealand," Speaker Gerry Brownlee said in a ruling in Parliament on Tuesday.

A petition was launched in 2022 by the Māori Party, an official political party, to officially change the country's name to Aotearoa, which received more than 70,000 signatures.

Not all Māori have the same connection to the name Aotearoa, which was originally used to describe New Zealand's North Island only.

While New Zealand is the legal name of the country and can only be changed by law, Aotearoa, which translates to "land of the long white cloud", has long been used when referring to New Zealand in Māori.