Sharples Pita: Ngati Whatua Orakei Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sharples Pita: Ngati Whatua Orakei Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6678. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Minister of Maori Affairs) 
 on behalf of the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations: I move  
That the Ngati Whatua Orakei Claims Settlement Bill be now read a third time 
. Tuatahi kia tukua atu nga whakamoemiti ki te Runga Rawa. E te Atua Kaha Rawa tenei matou ou pononga e tiro atu ana ki a Koe i tenei haora kia tata mai ki a matou e hui tahi nei i roto i tenei Whare. Tuwherahia o ringaringa ki a Grant otira ki a matou katoa e hui tahi nei kia piki te ora te kaha kei roto i a ia kia tere te hoki mai ki waenganui i a matou. Kare au e pirangi kia whakaroatia nga karakia ki a koe e te Atua hoi ano: “He ara matua he ara tipua he ara tawhiti ki a koe e u e haumi e hui e taiki e.” 
Ka timu te tai ka pari te tai ki Takaparawhau e tu whakahi ana a Orakei. Tukuna ra to karanga kia areare mai nga taringa kia hiki te wairua o Orakei. He tohu maumahara ki nga whawhai o o koutou kuia koroua i tu pakari ai mo te iwi. Ka kore e warewaretia. 
[ 
Firstly I offer up prayers to the Almighty above. We your humble servants oh Almighty above look to You at this hour to be closer to us gathered together here in this House. Open up your arms to Grant to all of us assembled here as well and improve his well-being and strength which will speed up his recovery to ensure him being back amongst us once more. I do not wish to prolong our prayers to you the Almighty and accordingly I close with this ancient incantation: “He ara matua he ara tipua he ara tawhiti ki a koe e u e haumi e hui e taiki e.”  
The tide ebbs and flows against Takaparawhau and Orakei stands there proudly. Issue your call so that it can be heard by listening ears and lift up the spirit of Orakei. It is a memorial symbol of the battles of your esteemed elderly men and womenfolk who stood staunch for the tribe. It will not be forgotten. 
] 
As the waters ebb and flow against Takaparawhau I recall the kuia and koroua o Orakei. I recall their long heartbreaking battles for their people. Today their determination conviction and mana bring their children to New Zealand’s House of Representatives. 
Haruru mai ana a Tumutumu Whenua i nga moemoea o ana uri. Tu tonu mai ra koe hei whakaruruhau mo nga tamariki mokopuna o Tuperiri ara ko Te Taou ko Nga Oho ko Te Uringutu hoki tihei mauri ora! 
Na reira Ngati Whatua tena koutou kua haramai a-tinana ki konei i tenei ra te ra whakahirahira te ra whakamutunga kia panuihia tenei kereme. Na reira nau mai haere mai koutou. Haramai koutou i te kaupapa whakahirahira e whakahui ai i a tatou i tenei ra. Ka hoki aku mahara ki a ratou kaore i konei ratou e mahi ana i tenei kereme i te wa i a ratou e ora ana. Ko Ta Hugh tetahi me era atu kua ngaro. Na reira ko te karanga kia mauria mai o koutou tini aitua ki ro Whare kia mihia kia poroporoakihia ratou. Na reira e nga mate o tatou katoa haere haere. Haere ki te okioki. Na reira ko te korero ratou ki a ratou tatou ki a tatou. 
Ngati Whatua ki Orakei nau mai whakapiri mai ki tenei kaupapa. He wa tenei maku ki te mihi atu ki a koutou. Wha tekau ma rima tau taku noho ki waenganui i a koutou i Tamaki-makau-rau. Na koutou nei ahau i manaaki i tiaki i tera wa. Na reira he honore tenei maku ki te timata i tenei korero i tenei ra a ki te mihi atu ki te karanga atu ki a koutou ki te whakataunga o tenei kereme. Na reira Joe tena koe kua hoki mai nei ki to Whare. Kai te mihi au me koutou katoa e kawe mai nei i nga kaupapa i roto i a Tamaki-makau-rau kia tu pakari ai te ahua o te Maori i roto i tena taone. Na reira tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou. 
[ 
Tumutumu Whenua resounds as a consequence of the dreams of its descendants. Stand resolute there as a mentor for the children and grandchildren of Tuperiri namely Te Taou Nga Oho and Te Uringutu as well behold the sneeze of life! 
And so salutations to you Ngati Whatua who have arrived here in person on this momentous and final day for the last reading of this claim. Accordingly welcome welcome. Welcome in respect of the highly important matter that has drawn us together here today. My thoughts go back to those who are no longer here and who worked on this claim during their lifetime. Sir Hugh was one as well as others who have since died. So I call on you to bring forth your many many deaths to be acknowledged and farewelled. And so to all our deaths I bid you farewell and goodbye. Depart and rest. The saying is as follows: they to themselves and we to ourselves.  
In respect of you Ngati Whatua of Orakei welcome draw closer to this matter. It is an opportunity as well for me to thank you. I have lived amongst you in Auckland for 45 years. In that time you nurtured and looked after me. Accordingly it is an honour for me to begin with this opening address and to welcome and summon you to the settlement of this claim. Therefore Joe I salute you on your return to your House. I acknowledge you and all of your entourage as well as the matters with you from Auckland that will strengthen the situation relating to Maoridom in that metropolis. Accordingly accolades acknowledgments and congratulations to you collectively. 
] 
I welcome the sons and daughters of Tuperiri to New Zealand’s House of Representatives. Through their manaakitanga they Ngati Whatua have enabled the creation and the growth of this nation’s biggest city. 
E na Ngati Whatua i tuku whenua i arai hoariri kia tipu pai te taone mo tauiwi e! Akarana Akarana e! 
[ 
Ngati Whatua gifted the land and warded off enemies to ensure that the town for non-Maori would develop safely! Auckland oh Auckland! 
] 
They gifted the land. They protected the inhabitants. They grew the city of Auckland so Maori and Pakeha could go forward together. Also through their manaakitanga they have welcomed the world to our lands from last year’s Rugby World Cup to the arrival and the powhiri for the future King of England only last weekend. Through their eyes they have seen hundreds thousands and millions settle upon the lands of their tipuna. I pay tribute to the ahi ka families of Takaparawhau.  
The ink was barely dry on the Treaty of Waitangi when the Crown first failed to honour this covenant. These actions would be repeated through generations of families and across more than 170 years rendering Ngati Whatua o Orakei virtually landless. By 1898 the Native Land Court had divided the bulk of Orakei Block into individual titles and extinguished communal ownership. After 50 years of failed court battles and barely 5 years after their men had returned from fighting in World War II Ngati Whatua o Orakei were evicted from Okahu Bay. Their marae their homes and their buildings were pulled down and burnt to the ground.  
A maminga te taone ki Ngati Whatua e! A panaia ki waho aue tahuna nga whare kainga e! Whakatorotoro! Turakina! Aue! Purari paka e! 
[ 
The town has deceived Ngati Whatua alas! Banished them and burned their homes! Attacked! Torn down! Oh the pain! Bloody buggers! 
] 
They were left with a quarter of an acre of land—land for an urupa a cemetery. Intense industrialisation soon saw pristine kai moana beds and streams polluted by years of raw sewage as Auckland’s population boomed. So the children of Orakei have grown up able only to look at the waters their grandparents used to swim in and live off. 
By the mid-1970s the ahi ka people of Orakei the tangata whenua held less than 1 hectare of whenua themselves. So when plans were unveiled for a high-end housing subdivision at Takaparawhau the people of Orakei—elders children families and supporters—returned to their whenua. Under the leadership of Grant Hawke and the Hawke family the elders and the young people of Ngati Whatua the tribe took a stand at Takaparawhau. Their message was simple. We are the tangata whenua. We are not trespassers. We will not leave. 
On the morning of Thursday 25 May 1978 Auckland woke to the sounds of an army convoy moving through the suburbs past exclusive Tamaki Drive homes and on to Bastion Point. The Government had mobilised the largest peacetime force of police and army in recent history and they were heading for Takaparawhau. That day more than 600 army and police personnel forcibly removed protestors—elders men women children and families. More than 200 were arrested. Temporary buildings gardens and a meeting house were pulled to the ground. 
The eviction of Ngati Whatua Orakei families was an appalling chapter in New Zealand history. However the determination and conviction of Ngati Whatua Orakei in the face of legislative and physical aggression and in the face of incredible and longstanding injustice was a proud moment in New Zealand history. All those things due to the actions of the Crown can never be totally replaced. Yet the people of Ngati Whatua Orakei wish to settle their grievances with the Crown with honour and with mana. When the great rangatira Te Kawau likened the coming of the Treaty of Waitangi to the great wind from the north that would bring change his prophecy was only to be fulfilled as we know. 
As it did for the rest of Aotearoa the world changed for Ngati Whatua Orakei after 1840. However the aspirations of Ngati Whatua Orakei have never changed. Those aspirations were the same in 1840 when Te Kawau signed the Treaty the same in 1977 when whanau bravely confirmed their mana whenua by reoccupying Takaparawhau and the same in 1988 when they lodged one of the first historical claims heard by the Waitangi Tribunal. Those aspirations are the same as those held today by the people of Takaparawhau who have come out today to see justice carried out in their name in the name of their ancestors and in the name of future generations. 
Ngati Whatua Orakei take ownership of their own destiny to determine their own economic and social well-being. They continue to uphold their mana motuhake and exercise their own rangatiratanga. Their members have visualised a future for their children a future where their people are healthy physically economically culturally spiritually and eternally. So these are good days to see our people—kuia koroua rangatahi—joining us in the House of Representatives. You know that behind these people walk their tipuna you know they walk in front of their future generations and alongside these people today stands the Crown. Together the Crown and Ngati Whatua will see justice come to pass for the descendants of Tuperiri. He honore maku kia tu i konei i tenei ra. 
[ 
It is an honour for me to stand here today. 
] 
Finally congratulations to Ngati Whatua on an international industrial award for the design of Te Waka Maori which hosted the thousands during the Rugby World Cup. Shane where are you Shane?