SpeechHon KIRITAPU ALLAN (Minister of Conservation): Mai i ngā tīpuna o Maruwharanui mai i ngā waka o Tokomaru Aotea Takitimu. Mai i ngā awa o Whanganui Waitara Taramoukou Manganui Pātea Tangahoe Tāngarākau Heao. Mai i ngā maunga o Taranaki Maunga Te Ahurangi ki a koutou te iwi o Ngāti Maru tēnei te mihi ki a koutou.Tahi tuatahi he maimai aroha tēnei ki ngā pou o Ngāti Maru kua ngaro ki te pō ko Josephine Nona Woods rāua ko Hazel Pareteuira Ngātaierua Peri otirā ki ētahi pou o te iwi Māori ki te Tā Wira Gardiner otirā ko te māreikura ko June Jackson. Kei te heke ngā roimata mā rātou. Hoea rā tō waka ki tō mātou tīpuna ki a Hawaiki nui Hawaiki roa Hawaiki pāmaomao. Moe mai rā ngā rangatira moe mai rā.Otirā kei te huri a mātou ki a koutou te hunga ora. Ngāti Maru kua tae mai nei ki te whakatinana ki te whakakapi tēnei pānui tuatoru o tō koutou pire Ngāti Maru Taranaki Claims Settlement Bill.Tēnei te mihi ki a koutou kua tae mai otirā ka whiua ōku nei whakaaro ki a Ngāti Maru e kāore e haramai ki tēnei Whare i raro i te kapua o te taumahatanga o te mate urutā e noho haumaru i te kāinga engari me mātaki i runga i te TV. Kei a rātou kei te mihi.[From the ancestors of Maruwharanui from Tokomaru Aotea and Takitimu canoes. From the rivers of Whanganui Waitara Taramoukou Manganui Pātea Tangahoe Tāngarākau and Heao. From the mountains of Taranaki from Te Ahurangi to you the iwi of Ngāti Maru this is my greeting to you.Firstly this is my expression of affection for the stalwarts of Ngāti Maru who have passed on Josephine Nona Woods and Hazel Pareteuira Ngātaierua Peri as well as stalwarts in the wider Māori world to Sir Wira Gardiner and to the esteemed June Jackson. Our tears fall for them. Paddle your canoe to our ancestors to great Hawaiki to long Hawaiki to distant Hawaiki. Rest in peace you noble ones.I now turn to you to the living. To Ngāti Maru you have come here to realise and to finalise this third reading of your bill the Ngāti Maru Claims Settlement Bill.Greetings to those of you who have arrived here but my thoughts are also with those who were unable to attend due to the dark cloud of the pandemic and are sitting safely at home to watch on the TV. To them greetings.]Oh I got a bit choked up there thinking about our dame who's just passed this morning. So my thoughts are just with my colleague Willie Jackson and for the whānau kua mate ana tana māmā i te ata nei heoi anō ka mihi aroha ki a rātou [and the family his mother died this morning therefore my compassionate greetings go to them]. Ngāti Maru I've been thinking over the last couple of days about what this means for you all as the last of Taranaki iwi to settle and what settlement means for a people who have lost their whenua through actions of the Crown. We acknowledge that period of time just in recent times that you've had to battle again the Crown and we hear that karanga whakahokia mai te whenua ki a mātou a te mana whenua [call return the land to us to those with traditional authority over the land].In these third readings some parts are celebratory and some parts pōuri because we know that it marks the end of one part of a journey but it commences a whole 'nother as now on behalf of the Crown we have to whakatinana the agreement that has been made through this part of the taupatupatu that you've made today and we must now turn to acknowledge and make sure we don't break yet again promises made to ngā hapū ngā iwi Māori—kia koutou Ngāti Maru—and that's not a smooth journey I have seen in my short tenure that I've been a Minister of the Crown. Minister Little will in turn make apologies on behalf of the Crown for the historical grievances at your marae in Taranaki but I too want to acknowledge that the journey ahead we must all bear in mind is an untreaded path for Ngāti Maru and the Crown that place. On my behalf for the agencies that I have authority to and I know my colleagues here it's now our duty to make sure that we do in every decision that we make whakatinana whakamana tēnei kawenata mai i te Karauna ki a koutou a Ngāti Maru [implement and validate this covenant between the Crown and you Ngāti Maru].I also want to acknowledge those that have been the face of Ngāti Maru who have engaged with the Crown since 2016 to land this agreement. Anaru tēnā koe. Nathan tēnā koe. The kāhui that have supported those: Holden Hohaia Paretutaki—Pare—Hayward-Howie Jamie Tuuta—otirā koutou katoa. Settlement processes are hard eh you know and we have to go through a lot at home—you have to go through a lot at home. There are consequences of your decision making for those that are in the position of having to navigate at each turn. They are hard decisions to make and I can only but commend you for the trials and the tribulations that you would have been through over the past few years to get to this point. I thank you for your patience and I thank you for the way that you have engaged with your people so that we may commence this new journey today. I stand here today in my capacity as the Minister of Conservation and it's those elements that I want to turn to in particular. Others have addressed the whakapapa and the history of the relationship with the Crown but I want to acknowledge the Ngāti Maru rohe centred on the inland of Waitara Valley east to the Whanganui River and its tributaries and west to Taranaki maunga. Whakahokia mai te whenua.[Return the land to us.]That is a karanga we hear from our people and it is one that we do not take lightly. Today as we mark off this particular third reading of this bill today marks the day when the lands of Ngāti Maru will be returned home. It is the start of a journey; it is not the end. So these sites today that return back home include pā sites battle sites mahinga kai historical and traditional pathways and wāhi tapu. It is the aspiration that this particular redress of the whenua will provide Ngāti Maru with a renewed visible footprint within their rohe as well as the ownership of lands that have for too long been in the hands of the Crown. Ngāti Maru are seen in part as being conservation warriors. So ko aku mihi ki a koutou mō tō manaaki ki tō tātou nei taiao. [So I acknowledge you all for you care of our environment.] I often think: what are we as mana whenua if we do not exercise mana over the whenua and if we do not exercise our rangatiratanga over the whenua ki te manaaki i a ia a Papatuanuku [our authority over the land to care for her Papatuanuku].This conservation redress in part: 16 sites are returning home totalling 218 hectares. We have in particular the Purangi Domain the former Tarata School and the schoolhouse and property at Tarawai. Some lands are transferring back in reserve status including Purangi Scenic Reserve Waitara River No 3 Historic Reserve and Tāngarākau River Historic Reserve. Important among these sites is the transfer of over 100 hectares of the Tarata conservation area which is situated just 500 metres from Te Upoko o te Whenua Ngāti Maru's sole marae and my colleague the Hon Anaru Paku has committed to reading the Crown apology and less than a kilometre from your former pā site Te Kerikēringa. Tarata conservation area is covered with incredible indigenous flora and fauna. Pukatea rimu nīkau and tawa are representative of a forest that once stood there at the lower stretches of the Waitara River. It's a place of I understand reflection and significance to Ngāti Maru and it's hot that this transfer particularly in light of—I'll just throw it in there—Matariki the new pounga another time to commemorate. Maybe this will be an appropriate time to rekindle that unbroken relationship that Ngāti Maru have had with the taiao mahi that has continued in those areas to improve the mauri of the ngahere hei korā. There are a range of deeds in recognition of statutory acknowledgments including from where you've drawn from your eponymous tupuna Maru Wharenui and drawn from the sustenance of the Waitara River. I know that these have been expressed in the course of this settlement bill. With time concluding may I just say may this be the beginning of a healthy relationship between the Crown Te Papa Atawhai and Ngāti Maru nō reira kei te mihi ki a koutou [the Department of Conservation and Ngāti Maru and so I greet you].