Harawira Hone: Kerikeri National Trust Bill — Second Reading 
Harawira Hone: Kerikeri National Trust Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9879] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe. I am lucky that I am Maori and a member of the Maori Party because as Parekura Horomia well knows being Maori means one learns to wait and wait for years before anything gets done. But waiting for 12 years for John Carter to write a speech to get rid of this bill is pushing it a bit—12 long years! That is about as long as it will take my relation from Waimaru kia tae atu ki te taumata o tona pati. [ 
to reach the standard of his party 
.] No reira tena koe Shane. 
But I am glad that this bill came up during the time of the Maori Party. It gives me a chance to add a bit more Maori spin to it because Kerikeri holds a very important place in all our history. It also gives me a chance to pronounce a lot of these names properly. Judith Binney a professor of history at the University of Auckland said that the Kerikeri basin is the most significant visual testimony that we have to the meeting of two worlds in Aotearoa New Zealand. 
Writings of the time record radical change between Maori and Pakeha including some of the major players of the time—Hongi Hika Hone Heke Rewa Titore Waikato Samuel Marsden Governor George Grey the Williams family and Thomas Kendall. Our oral histories tell us of a thriving Kororipo Pa before the arrival of European settlers and Kororipo would later become an important gathering place not just for people but also for the distribution of resources and also as a gathering place often for other raids. Our waiata our haka and our histories speak of a pa at Whakataha the people of Ngati Rehia and Takou Bay home of the Mataatua canoe and heaps and heaps of kai moana. We know of Hongi’s journeys up the Waitangi River and on to Waimate. They speak of the protection given by Te Paihi to the local people from the attacks of lawless whalers and of the cultivations of kumara at Te Puna and Rangihoua and of the massive forests of totara and tawa. 
We know too of the lives and of the stories of rangatira from the area from the local hapu and of the resting place of Te Hotete. Indeed the whole area is packed with historical references to Maori who lived and died there for many many generations. Ruatara Pa on the other hand also gives us an opportunity to witness the forging of a remarkable relationship between a chap by the name of Ruatara an entrepreneurial kind of a guy and the missionary Samuel Marsden. Ruatara knew Marsden wanted to bring in Christianity so he talked him into teaching him some new agricultural techniques because of the area. In return he helped him to introduce the gospel in 1814 and to start his mission. 
St James Church is also a sign of earlier times when the mission station was established in 1819 and indeed the memorials in the windows and the Butler and Kemp tablets pay tribute to the original whare karakia. The Stone Store itself was built in 1832 originally as a storehouse and later on as a trading post for the burgeoning kauri gum trade in the late 1800s. In fact the store was once owned by John Black who was also responsible for the first school at Kerikeri. Of course we all know that 110 years later the school was reopened after major renovation work and under Historic Places Trust designation. Also associated with the mission was Kemp House the oldest surviving European building in the country. It was built in 1819 on land granted to Marsden by Ngapuhi chief Hongi Hika and used as a mission house and a home for lay missionary James Kemp whose descendants lived there until 1974 when it was finally gifted to the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. 
Such then is a taste of the meeting of the two worlds. This was the original purpose of the bill—to recognise the important place of the Kerikeri Basin in the history of Aotearoa and to preserve protect administer and promote its historical cultural and natural heritage. There is nothing wrong with any of that. Members of the Maori Party have been kind of surprised at some of the reactions in this House when we seek to do just that—preserve protect and promote the historical cultural and natural heritage of the tangata whenua of this land and of this land itself. 
The Maori Party supports the notion of safeguarding heritage and scenic assets in Kerikeri and other places. We welcome the opportunity for the debate and discussion that that provides because it is the tension and the battles of history that help to define and shape us as a people. I saw something that Olympic multi-gold medallist and black athlete Jesse Owens once said. He said: “The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself—the invisible inevitable battles inside of all of us—that’s where it’s at.” Indeed that is exactly where it is at when we look back at Kerikeri. 
We look back with pride at the generations of settlement prior to the coming of the European. We look back in anger at the unnecessary fighting and killings that were part of the joining of the races. We look back with wonder at the enthusiasm and entrepreneurship of Maori and early settlers. We look back in awe at Hongi Hika allowing himself to be feted in courtly England so that he could come home with the muskets and powder that he was really after. Those are the struggles that we must face and that we must understand if we are to be truly part of our history. 
The Maori Party has considered all of the challenges that come with this bill. We support the unanimous view of the select committee that the bill should not proceed but we do so with two very important riders. We are convinced of the remarkable heritage value of the whole Kerikeri Basin and indeed the greater Bay of Islands itself. The second point is that we would not have been able to support this bill anyway unless we were truly satisfied that tangata whenua had been involved in a real and meaningful way. That was not the case in the bill we saw before us tonight. 
I thank you Mr Deputy Speaker for this opportunity to speak. I would also like to thank Pete Hodgson for letting us know that his tipuna signed the Treaty of Waitangi. Was that at Waitangi I ask Mr Jones? It was signed up there. I also thank Brian Donnelly for his own little history lesson and John Carter as well for sticking with this bill all the way to its end. Tena koutou. Kia ora tatou katoa. 
Motion not agreed to.