Flavell Te Ururoa: Bishop Suter Art Gallery Governance Restructuring Bill — Second Reading Third Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Bishop Suter Art Gallery Governance Restructuring Bill — Second Reading Third Reading 
[Volume:648;Page:17141] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Madam Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou e te Whare. There is a special reason why I will speak to the Bishop Suter Art Gallery Governance Restructuring Bill in my capacity as the MP for Waiariki. That special reason has everything to do with the relationship between Bishop Suter who has been spoken about today and Te Matamua o nga Pihopa Maori the first Maori Bishop Frederick Augustus Bennett. That relationship developed at a little place called Te Mu at Te Wairoa in the Rotorua district. My research tells me that in 1886 Bishop Suter of Nelson while returning from the General Synod in Auckland decided to visit the Pink and White Terraces around Rotorua. While he was there he conducted a service at Te Wairoa a village that would be destroyed later that year by the eruption of Mount Tarawera. During the course of the service so the story goes a beautiful voice was heard singing the traditional Maori hymn “Whakarongo ki te kupu” with its repeated verses “oti rawa!”. 
The voice of course was that of a young Freddie Bennett and so impressed was Bishop Suter that he insisted that he would track down this young singer. Upon finding him Bishop Suter asked this young boy to come with him to Nelson to be educated and to train for the ministry. It appears that without too much hesitation this young lad walked to Ohinemutu from Tarawera asked his parents for permission and took off to Nelson. And so began a lifetime of dedication from this young leader from Ngati Whakaue who would in December 1928 become consecrated as the first Bishop of Aotearoa and further on the Bishop of Waiapu. It was a position he held for 22 years. It was part of the total commitment that Bishop Bennett gave to his Maori people a commitment represented also in his support for the Young Maori Party at the time. 
And so here we are the Maori Party in 2008 connected through this bill to a relationship that developed some 122 years ago. I might add that one of the houses of my former school St Stephens which some of the members of this House attended was also named after the bishop—Bennett House. Unfortunately that House did not win too many competitions so we will leave that aside. What it does say though is that Bennett’s name is set amongst the same category of Maori leadership as Pomare Ngata Te Rangi Hiroa Timi Kara and the like. 
This is just one of the many distinctive relationships and achievements that characterise the link to this person Bishop Suter and the place that gives this bill their name. The Bishop Suter Art Gallery—Te Aratoi o Whakatu—is aptly named to represent art as the pathway to Whakatu to Nelson. It has been shaping out this pathway for over 109 years I understand since it first opened its doors as a provincial gallery in 1899. As the third oldest art gallery in Aotearoa it can pride itself on an outstanding collection of classics including artworks from John Gully C F Goldie and Sir Toss Woollaston as other speakers have already said. It is also passionately devoted to sketching out the future horizons for art in Whakatu hence the reason for the bill. 
The Suter gallery has set its sights on becoming a state-of-the-art gallery for the 21st century by seeking to revise the original 1896 Act of Parliament to now become a council-controlled organisation with the Nelson City Council. Alongside internationally recognised artists such as Jane Evans or photographer Craig Potton the new Bishop Suter Trust also includes a nominee representing Ko te Pou Arangi the group representing each of the six mana whenua iwi trusts of Whakatu Maata Waka and Nelson kaupapa Maori artists. The transfer from the old board to the new board that is effected by this bill creates a more publicly accountable governance structure—as was spoken about by Dr Nick Smith—which is appropriate given that the Bishop Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatu now depends on local authority funding and support. This is all good and the Maori Party is happy to stand with other parties to ensure that the Bishop Suter Art Gallery can move promptly to take up its new governance structure. 
Our only other call at this stage is to ensure that priority is indeed given in advancing Te Aratoi o Whakatu to the relationships with mana whenua. I will return to the beginning again to think of the impact that Bishop Frederick Augustus Bennett made in the lives of Te Arawa and indeed tangata whenua. You see Bishop Bennett was our first Maori missionary in Rotorua the vicar of the Ohinemutu pastorate and he played an important role in advocating against the damaging effects of alcohol abuse on Maori which was a problem he described as imported by the Europeans. His son Manuhuia became the third bishop of Aotearoa in 1968; another son Paratene was the first Maori to obtain his commission in the Royal Navy; and another son Lieutenant Colonel Charles Bennett was the first Maori diplomat was for some time in command of the Maori Battalion and later was an Assistant Secretary of Maori Affairs. 
When Bishop Suter picked out from the congregation the young Freddie Bennett on that fateful day at Te Mu it was the start of an incredible legacy of leadership and community passion in Te Arawa in the Anglican Church in Maori affairs in the armed forces and in politics. Bishop Andrew Suter and his wife Amelia also emblazoned a pathway forward for the community of Nelson that will outlast even the most distinctive of the artworks collected in the Suter gallery. From even the most humble beginnings with the Bishopdale Sketching Club which was established in 1889 by Bishop Suter and friends it was always the intention that through art the community would grow. That has indeed become the case in Nelson and in the wider top of the southern region. 
The legacy of pride generosity and community spirit that the Suters sowed over a century ago lives on in the hearts in the people of Nelson of mana whenua and of the people that we might call Whakatu. We are honoured to help them to achieve their aspirations by our support of this bill.