Tirikatene Rino: Obituaries — Hon Parekura HoromiaText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Obituaries — Hon Parekura Horomia[Sitting date: 07 May 2013. Volume:689;Page:9622. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Tihei mauri ora. Parekura hoki wairua mai. Hoki wairua mai ki te Whare Pāremata o Niu Tīreni. Ko te Whare tēnei i nohoa ai e koe 14 ngā tau. Hoki wairua mai ki te Whare i nohoa ai e tō tupuna a Tā Apirana Ngata. Nō reira e te matua Parekura moe mai moe mai moe mai i roto i Te Ariki. Āpiti hono tātai hono ko te hunga mate ki te hunga mate; āpiti hono tātai hono ko te hunga ora ki te hunga ora. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.E ngā iwi o Te Tai Rāwhiti tēnā koutou. Tēnā koutou te haere mai nei ki te Whare Pāremata ki te whakatutuki i tō tātou kaupapa i tīmataria i Hauiti i te wiki kua taha. Haere mai haere mai haere mai koutou o Te Tai Rāwhiti. Nō reira tēnā koutou. E aku rangatira huri noa i te Whare tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[Behold the breath of life. Return here spiritually Parekura. Come back to Parliament House New Zealand to this House where you lived for 14 years. Return here in spirit to the House that your ancestor Sir Apirana Ngata occupied. And so sleep the fatherly figure Parekura. Slumber on within the Lord. The lines are joined; allow the dead to remain with the dead. The lines are joined; allow the living to remain with the living. So salutations greetings and acknowledgments to you and to us all collectively.To you the tribes of the East Coast I acknowledge you. Thank you for coming to Parliament House to finish off our matter which began in Hauiti last week. Welcome welcome and welcome to you of the East Coast. I salute you. To my esteemed leaders throughout the House acknowledgments to you and to all of us.]It is a great honour for me to speak and pay tribute to Parekura. So much has been said over the past week and indeed this afternoon. There is really not much more I can add. It has been a sad week a very sad week but it has also been a very great great week. It has been momentous in the depth and in the breadth of Māoritanga that hasbeen displayed. It was there on display up there in the house of Hauiti on the marae and it was shown by the people of Ūawa Tolaga Bay and the Ngati Porou whānui. The sheer size of the tangi for Parekura was testament to the mana of the man and the mana of his hapū Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti and Porourangi.All the appropriate tohu availed themselves upon us for those 4 days. The marae smiled in warm sunshine and cried when the heavens opened. We have heard the great oratory on the marae. They managed to keep Shane Jones contained for 4 days as he sat on the pae there. We heard the wonderful oratory the wonderful tributes. We even had the Prime Minister fly in by helicopter. To see the front bench of the Government—te Kāwanatanga—pay tribute to our chief Parekura was really one of those moments of parliamentary unity that made me proud to be an MP—all in honour of our chief.We have heard about Parekura the shearer. Tau talked about his prowess as a fisherman. We have heard about him as a senior civil servant as a Minister of the Crown as a member—a hard-working member—for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti. We have heard about him as a family man and as a great orator as he was in his own way. I would like to say that Parekura was also another: he was a weaver. I say “Parekura the weaver” because he was a real rangatira. To adopt a “Parekura-ism” the etymology or the root word of “rangatira” consists of “ranga” to weave and “tira” the people.As we have heard over this past week from all people from all backgrounds that is what Parekura was to us here and also to everyone in this Parliament and to all the people whom he touched and whom he worked with so closely over many years. He had that ability to bring everyone from all backgrounds from all socio-economic backgrounds whether it be the Speaker of the House of Parliament or Ministers or kings through to the whānau the fishermen and the freezing workers he was able to bring all cultures together. That was appropriately paid tribute to by my colleague Su’a when the Pacific peoples paid honour to Parekura on the marae. The giving of those gifts of those fine mats on the marae was something that was very moving. It was testament to the mana of the man.So much has been said. Parekura took me under his wing as a new MP and one of the things he used to do to me was give me a bit of a nudge when I was going on for too long. He would always say to me afterwards: “It was good but you know you don’t need to raise so many points. Just make your points and ka nui tēnā.”—leave it at that. So I will be following his instructions just as they will be carried with me throughout my hopefully long career. I honour our chief and just carry his memory with me as I know we all do. Moe mai rā e te rangatira. Haere ki te torona o Īhowa haere ki te Kaiwhakaora. Kia ora mai anō tātou.[I say unto you the leader sleep on. Go forth to the throne of the Lord and to the Redeemer. Acknowledgments once again to us collectively.]