Abstract

Excerpted From: Elise Swenson, Rights of Nature, Reconciliatory Justice, and National Parks: Evaluating the Te Urewera Model for Redwood National and State Parks, 43 Wisconsin International Law Journal 477 (Summer 2026) (387 Footnotes) (Full Document)

In the United States, the creation of state and national parks “historically involved, and continues to involve, violent practices of land dispossession, enclosure and privatization, and the marginalization of Native American People.” Lands taken from Indigenous peoples through genocide, forced removal, and assimilation later became those used for national parks throughout the United States. Although the values underpinning the establishment of national parks do not align exactly with those underpinning the resource extraction that catalyzed colonialism, these values still descend directly from settler-colonial understandings of property ownership. Though many Americans view the national parks as positive examples of conservation, the parks continue to perpetuate a view of nature as set apart from humans--a view that reinforces the continued erasure of Indigenous history and contributes to continued colonial land policy.

This Article suggests that the rights of nature movement--a growing international legal movement that seeks to protect the environment by establishing legal rights for natural features and ecosystems--combined with reconciliatory justice mechanisms may be an effective vehicle for interrogating colonial legacies, asserting the rights of Indigenous communities, and developing sustainable and creative systems to manage national parks. The national park system, which already enjoys a level of environmental protection and engenders public support for care and preservation, may prove fertile ground for an initial national-level rights of nature and reconciliatory justice initiative in the United States. This Article further argues that, in order to meaningfully interrogate the history of colonialism underpinning the national park system and American public land policy as a whole, any national park rights of nature initiative must be Indigenous-led. To this end, this Article examines Aotearoa New Zealand’s Te Urewera Act--a Māori-led rights of nature and reconciliatory justice initiative for lands previously designated as a New Zealand national park. This Article then applies a similar model to Redwood National Park, considering a previous rights of nature initiative undertaken by the Yurok Tribe--a tribe with ancestral territory inside Redwood National Park.

Part I of this Article first examines the colonial roots of the national park systems in the United States and New Zealand, followed by a discussion of the specific history of Redwood National and State Parks in the United States and Te Urewera National Park in Aotearoa New Zealand. This Part then turns to a discussion of the rights of nature movement, before concluding with a discussion of reconciliatory justice frameworks.

Part II first analyzes the rights of nature and the reconciliatory justice framework used in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Te Urewera Act and the corresponding Tūhoe Claims Settlement Act. This Part then discusses how the Te Urewera Act operates in practice, including examining a 2023 case, Tuna v. Te Urewera Board, which centers around disagreements over the interpretation of the Te Urewera Act’s provisions between Tūhoe community members and the Te Urewera Board. Next, this Part turns to a discussion of the Yurok Tribe’s ecological management practices in and around Redwood State and National Parks, including examining the Rights of the Heyhl-keek 'We-roy Ordinance--the Yurok Tribe’s rights of nature initiative for the Klamath River.

Finally, Part III applies the Te Urewera model to Redwood State and National Parks, arguing that a rights of nature and reconciliatory justice initiative led by the Yurok Tribe would be well-suited for the park system while also noting potential concerns that may arise.

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In many ways, the Te Urewera Act and the work of the Te Urewera Board illustrates how reconciliatory and restorative justice principles can be integrated into land-management frameworks that retain a resemblance to already-existing environmental management systems. Rights of nature initiatives that engage multiple stakeholders in a collaborative environment, with Indigenous voices uplifted and centered, can help society as a whole meaningfully engage with the natural world and switch from a human-centric view of nature as commodity to a view of nature as relative and an integral part of our human identities.

These initiatives can also help prevent future colonial patterns by engaging stakeholders in honest conversation around colonial history and mending relationships going forward. Applying a similar model to Redwood National and State Parks in collaboration with the Yurok Tribe could prove successful in the United States and help further address the National Park Service’s colonial history while restoring a level of Indigenous decision making over parklands.

J.D. candidate, 2026.