Wall LouisaLOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare.Moe maiNgā mate o Ngāti TūwharetoaI roto i te arohaWhakatō maiI rotoE te wā kāingaKa eke i aku kamoNgā wai roimataAuē e ngā mate o Ngāti TūwharetoaE tū ōku ōku nei[Rest here The deceased of Ngāti TūwharetoaWith lovePlant here In the homelandEmerging from my eyesThe tears tearsAlas the deceased of Ngāti TūwharetoaStand mine mine]I sing that lament on our behalf for our whānau who aren't with us today for our whānau across our 26 hapū for our whānau who are part of a collective group who participated in the process that the Crown has enabled since 1975—we had 100 Wai claims. So I sing that proudly because I stand here as an uri of Ngāti Tūwharetoa incredibly proud of the legacy that our tūpuna have left us. I acknowledge for all of us our whānau who have passed on but they passed us this legacy of representation this legacy of actually being staunchly Ngāti Tūwharetoa.I was thinking about what to say today and I've decided actually it's not really my words that I want to share with us today and so I found an interesting quote. It was written by Edward Jerningham Wakefield in his book Adventure in New Zealand and he talks about the king of Taupō. On 1 January 1842 at te Heuheu the Great's village in Te Rapa he conducted an interview. At that time te Heuheu was being besieged by many people who wanted him to sell his land. This is what is quoted in this pukapuka—and I quote:If this be your wish … go back and tell my words to the people who sent you. I am king here as my fathers were before me and as King George and his fathers [were] over your country. I have not sold my chieftainship to the Governor as all the chiefs round the sea-coast have done nor have I sold my land. I will sell neither. A messenger was here from the Governor to buy the land the other day and I refused: if you are on the same errand I refuse you too. You White people are numerous and strong; you can easily crush us if you choose and take possession of that which we will not yield; but here is my right arm and should thousands of you come you must make me a slave or kill me before I will give up my authority or my land. When you go you will say I am"—this is interesting—"[a] big-mouthed [Māori] like the other Māori[s] who you have talked to; but I am now telling you that by which I mean to abide. Let your people keep the sea-coast and leave the interior to us and our mountain whose name is sacred to the bones of my father. Do not bring many White people into the interior who may encroach on our possessions till we become their servants".Te Heuheu did not sign the Treaty. We were incredibly clear that we would not cede anything that we wanted to be the rangatira of our own lands; we wanted to control our own lives. So in highlighting those words I must highlight the words of te ariki o Ngāti Tūwharetoa Tā Tumu who said at the signing of the deed of settlement at Waitetoko on 8 July 2017—I'll make two quotes—"let us never forget the remarkable feats of our tupuna neither can we forget the many who began this journey with us who though not physically here today are undoubtedly with us all [in] wairua within each and every one of us. Let this settlement be a sacred thread that binds us all; that we may look to the health and well-being of our future generations from a platform of consensus and unity. It is a testimony to the strength of our tikanga that Ngāti Tuwharetoa has never ceded our authority within our rohe each generation upholding the legacy of Ngatoroirangi and our tupuna."I want add to that quote. I'll add to te Heuheu the Great and actually knowledge you Tā Tumu who has led us so valiantly to the point that we are at today. I acknowledge all of our rangatira across our hapū who have participated in a process that we have controlled. I do want to highlight that through the Treaty settlement process we have amazing opportunities before us because as part of the settlement we have a relationship with the Department of Conservation for example; Te Piringa Agreement. We will have opportunities with the Waikato Regional Council and the Taupō District Council through our Te Kōpua agreement. So there are many opportunities yet to be realised and I think that the foundation that we have and the partnerships that we have and the opportunities that we have are significant. I want to acknowledge all of those rangatira who will be leading us through that process into the future. So kia kaha to our Te Kotahitanga o Ngāti Tūwharetoa reps. We have much to do but I know that we have the capacity we have the intellect but more than that we have the heart and the legacy which means we will be creating opportunities for future generations.I just want to take the last couple of minutes of my contribution to echo the words of Tā Tumu when he signed the deed of settlement because it was an acknowledgment actually of the process. It was an acknowledgment on that day of Minister Finlayson and Minister Flavell and I know today he would add Minister Little to that list. It was an acknowledgment of the Crown negotiators both on the Crown side and on Tūwharetoa's side and I acknowledge Sir Michael Cullen who's here with us today and the others. It was an acknowledgment of the officials within the Government departments. It was also an acknowledgment of the Crown Forestry Rental Trust.So in thanking all of those who have been involved from the negotiation perspective I would now like to highlight the role of the Māori Affairs Committee and I want to specifically acknowledge our chair Rino Tirikatene and the members of the Māori Affairs Committee. We undertake that work with incredible pride and in fact when I first came into this House I sat next to the Hon Parekura Horomia for three years as a member of the Māori Affairs Committee. It is the most humbling work that we could ever do because in fact it is our truth and reconciliation process and it's an opportunity for us actually to acknowledge what happened in our country and the fact that many of us were killed. We had land stolen from us and with our land we had our culture and our language taken from us and through colonisation we were supposed to assimilate but we never did and we never will because we are strong and we are proud.So the legacy that we must ensure our children get is our language and our culture. My father said to me "If I could speak Te Reo I would have everything." And it's interesting. I don't have Te Reo—it was beaten out of my dad and he wanted to protect us—but my baby sister does so I mihi to my little sister Janice who's not here. But the rights of every one of our tamariki and mokopuna going forward is to know our history to learn our Reo so that we can continue I believe to stand on the shoulders of our ancestors our tūpuna who have brought us to where we are today. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa."