Sharples Pita: Obituaries — Hon Parekura HoromiaText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSharples Pita: Obituaries — Hon Parekura Horomia[Sitting date: 07 May 2013. Volume:689;Page:9596. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Co-Leader—Māori Party): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Ā tēnā koutou koutou kua haere manuhiri mai i tēnei ata te mau nei i ō koutou mate ki rō Whare kia mihia rātou. E kore e mutu ngā korero ki a rātou ki a Parekura ki ngā mate e tīraha tonu i ngā marae maha o te motu. Nā reira koutou haere haere atu rā okioki. Ahakoa kua pau aku poroporoaki ki a Parekura i Hauiti ka tū anō au ki te tautoko i ngā mihi o ēnei ki a koutou kua hara mai nei i tēnei rā. Tēnā koutou e whakatū tēnā tangihanga kua kitea e te motu. Kua kōrerohia kei roto i ngā niupepa ngā pouaka whakaata e pā ana ki ō koutou manaaki ki ngā manuhiri i haere tawhiti ake ki a koutou ā kia taea e rātou te utaina ngā kōrero me ngā hūpē ki runga i a ia i ō rātou poroporoaki. Nā reira tēnā koutou.Kua kite te ao o Aotearoa nei ki tēnei āhuatanga o ngāi tāua arā te hōhonutanga o te tangihanga nā tā koutou aroha manaaki i tēnei ō koutou ō tātou arā ki a Parekura. Tēnā koutou Hauiti marae Ngati Porou Ngāti Kahungunu ngā kārangarangatanga maha; koutou kua hara mai nei i tēnei rā hoki ā ki te tautoko i tēnei āhuatanga ki te takahia i tōna whare me ērā āhuatanga kia oti pai tāna noho i roto i te Whare Pāremata nei i tēnei rā. Ka nui ngā mihi ki a koutou. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou.[Thank you Mr Speaker. Welcome to you who have arrived here this morning to bring your deaths into the House to be acknowledged. The tributes to those and indeed to Parekura who continue to lie in state on the many courtyards of the country will never cease. And so I say unto you the dead farewell and rest there. Although my farewells to Parekura at Hauiti are spent I rise again to endorse those you have brought with you today. Thank you for that mourning ceremony you held for the nation to view. The generosity you extended towards the visitors who came from afar made it possible for them to heap upon him what they wanted to say to him in their farewell tributes as well as express their emotions and that has been reported in newspapers and on television. And so thank you.New Zealand at large witnessed this situation of ours in terms of the depth of a mourning ceremony because of your love for this one of yours and ours and the way you looked after Parekura. I acknowledge you Hauiti courtyard Ngati Porou Ngāti Kahungunu and the many callings as well as those of you who came here today to endorse this situation and to render his residence and those sorts of things of his goodness again so that his term in Parliament House is free again of impediments. My thanks to you are enormous. Thank you thank you and thank you.]I would like to talk “extempor-or-raneously” about my people locked in the matrix of dysfunctionality or words to that effect. If you do not understand them pretend thatyou do. Parekura was a man of the people and a man of this House. When I first got into Parliament he was a Minister. He invited my wife and me to dinner in a Chinese restaurant here in Wellington and then he laid down the “do’s and the don’ts” in Parliament amongst the people here. I particularly remember: “Don’t accept favours from anybody because they will hold you up to something else later on. When they take you to dinner don’t let them pay. That’s a common trick. Ask Winston.” He said: “Because if they pay then later on they will come and collect.” He gave us all this good advice at dinner. Immediately after dinner he got up and paid for the dinner. But that was the man. He told fibs. Fancy saying Mangatuna’s eels are bigger than Ngāti Kahungunu’s eels! I find that one really hard to believe.But what a man. He united us. All sorts of people were united at that tangihanga. It was good to see all the parties present hear the speeches given and all united in a common cause. But more important was how many tribes came to that funeral. They came from all over New Zealand—all over—and in large numbers. And so it is a compliment to the hosts the marae of Hauiti Ngati Porou whānui and everybody else who participated in that tangi.I would like to acknowledge the army. It turns out when we ask it to help in tangihanga. Sometimes it is a very small tangi in a very small marae in a remote area—invaluable. Other times it is like this when thousands and thousands come and it is so needed to help with its cooking machinery and so on. Its dedication to the task is enormous. It is a time to thank wardens. They are at every tangihanga they are out on the streets they are out on their duty and this was part of his army that he had following him. I would like to acknowledge Te Puni Kōkiri which worked with Parekura for 8 years as a team and even there the host people were acknowledging particular Te Puni Kōkiri workers in his last hours.So that is all I would like to say. He united us. I hope that we can unite more on other things remembering why we got here and why we came here and that we can laugh too like we laughed with Parekura. Nā reira kei te rangatira okioki tonu i Te Kaihanga hei whāriki mō mātou. Haere haere atu rā. Tēnā koe.[And so to you the leader continue to rest there with the Creator as a mat for us. Depart farewell. Thank you.]