Harawira Hone: Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Harawira Hone: Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:647;Page:15911] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora tatou katoa e te Whare. This Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Amendment Bill is important to a lot of people for many reasons but it is very important to Maori because it deals with information that is an essential element of whakapapa and whakapapa is a very very special part of being Maori. 
Whakapapa is not something introduced through 21st century computer-based family tree programmes or family history websites. Indeed whakapapa is not even just about genealogy; whakapapa is far far deeper than that. 
Nearly 80 years ago Sir Apirana Ngata presented a paper to the Wellington branch of the Historical Association in which he challenged the prevailing practice of depicting genealogy and history as having started in this country only with the arrival of the European settlers. Ngata referred the historians to the minute books of the Native Land Court describing them as containing “the most diversified use of the genealogical method as illustrating the Maori customs relating not only to land tenure but also to birth marriage death war peace-making conquest gifts mana chieftainship … and other aspects of pre-pakeha life of the Maori people.” Whakapapa is the basis of our history the basis of kinship underpinning the whole concept of whanau hapu and iwi and an essential element in how Maori see ourselves as tangata whenua here in Aotearoa. 
I recall just last year a good mate of mine by the name of Joe Te Rito gave another perspective on the complexity of whakapapa research. He talked about how he was trying to trace his whakapapa all the way back to Papatuanuku with particular interest in the 16 generations from Rongomaiwahine high chieftainess of Te Mahia down to himself. Joe drew on Ngata’s legacy to explain the concept of whakapapa as a genealogical story told layer upon layer ancestor upon ancestor. 
He also talked about the many different ways Maori had to describe the detail and the history of births deaths marriages and relationships such as the notion of whakamoe or intermarriages within a person’s lines of descent; the concept of taotahi or listing ancestors’ names without including those of wives or husbands; tararere or tracing a single line of descent without showing intermarriages or other kinship relationships; and the notion of tahu or setting out the main lines from the progenitors of a tribe—ancestors for example like Ikanui and Wheeru for Te Aupouri Tuwhakatere for Ngai Takoto Rahiri for Ngapuhi etc. So members can see how identity and having access to the records of that identity are crucial in enabling people to better understand their history their place in today’s world and their potential for the future. 
I recall for example when I first came to Parliament I was asked what name I would like to have on my door. So naturally I told them that my name was Hone Pani Tamati Waka Nene Harawira. Just as naturally Parliamentary Service told me that it could not do it that I could not have my name on my door that it was too long. Did I have a shorter version? Would I mind if one of my names was dropped? But the reality is that my name defines me through mana tupuna and mana whenua as well. Indeed with a name like Tamati Waka Nene it would not be possible for me to be anything but a member of Parliament for the mighty Tai Tokerau. I carry my name with pride in my ancestry and pride in the relationships I have through my tupuna to a goodly number of other MPs in this House including MPs from Labour National New Zealand First and the Maori Party. 
Peter Brown 
: Are we on that computer? 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: I say to Peter Brown that he is not but members of his party are. 
Far be it from me to risk causing offence by chopping off one of my names because through my whakapapa I am also the living image of those who have gone before us. So rather than agreeing to chop one of my names off I simply asked that Parliamentary Service work it out and lo and behold it came to pass. 
Whakapapa can be complex it can be frightening it is always keenly watched by observers and it is a mark of maturity in those who are able to capture its essence albeit at wildly different levels. The recalling in proper order of whakapapa is one of the greatest skills of our most treasured orators—our kaumatua—and increasingly the young sharp minds of our rangatahi. 
There is nothing like listening to a master in the art of whakapapa and I have been privileged in my time to hear some of the truly great orators of the north including the Rev. Maori Marsden and Sir James Henare himself who used whakapapa to build connections between people who had no idea of their relationship to others in the same house who used whakapapa to define the value of historical links between hapu and iwi who might have been at loggerheads with one another and in a truly masterly display Sir James Henare used whakapapa to completely destroy the arbitrary boundaries laid down for Ngapuhi by highlighting the deep whakapapa connections between hapu inside and outside of that arbitrary boundary line. 
I was speaking to Angeline Greensill the Maori Party candidate for Hauraki-Waikato about this very bill just last week and she said that it was really really important that the Maori Party supported the right of tangata whenua to be able to access information about births deaths marriages and relationships as it is one of those essential aspects of our whanau hapu and iwi that must be preserved. I followed up that discussion by making a call to Monty Ohia the Maori Party candidate for Te Tai Tonga to see what his thoughts were and I was not surprised at all to learn that he was of the very same mind. Indeed he said that the Maori Party should also support the right of all other New Zealanders to have access to that information for the same reasons because he believed that genealogy helped people to build awareness of themselves and their relationships with others through knowledge of their own ancestry. 
And Derek Fox the Maori Party candidate for Ikaroa-Rawhiti added that the concept of mana tupuna was equally important in helping Maori to define our status as tangata whenua and as a distinct people. He said that mana tupuna was the bridge that linked us to our ancestors that defined our heritage and that gave us the stories that defined our place in the world. 
And although we accept the importance of security measures to protect personal details from abuse it is because of the critical importance of whakapapa to Maori and the safeguarding of the art of whakapapa as a key asset in the survival and renaissance of Maori as tangata whenua that the Maori Party will be supporting the right of whanau to continue to have access to registered information on births deaths marriages and relationships for the legitimate purpose of discovering more about one’s whakapapa and all the relationships that flow from that knowledge and those connections. Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Kia ora tatou katoa.