Hayes John: Obituaries — Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu 
Hayes John: Obituaries — Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu 
[Volume:633;Page:4761] 
JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of the people in my electorate in the Wairarapa first of all to thank them for the privilege of being able to attend events at Ngaruawahia yesterday. As I looked through the crowd yesterday it struck me just what a demonstration of unity it was. There were young people older people Maori Pakeha and even two Sikhs with large yellow turbans. There were many New Zealanders yesterday at that occasion. I do not claim to have known Dame Te Atairangikaahu well at all but I was privileged to have crossed her path on a couple of occasions. 
Another path I crossed yesterday was that of a diminutive figure in the crowd—one Donna Awatere Huata who in a previous incarnation taught me something about Maori and about how to behave on a marae. I was to draw on that knowledge some years later when I had to take Prime Minister Rabbie Namaliu from Papua New Guinea on to the marae and introduce him to the Maori Queen. My knees knocked all night as I was thinking about how I was to do that in Maori and not make a fool of myself. It turned out the next day that Rabbie was equally nervous because he had never spoken on a marae in New Zealand before. He asked: “How am I going to speak at the end of this?”. So I said: “Just use your place talk.” 
The interesting thing I recall about the occasion was that Dame Te Atairangikaahu’s manner was such that it put everybody at ease when they felt quite tense. The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea spoke his place talk. Not one person in his delegation of 12 nor anybody else on the marae understood a word he said because he comes from Rabaul. There was no one else from Rabaul in his delegation there so all of us were left in the dark. But Dame Te Atairangikaahu was really welcoming and I particularly remember that. 
On another occasion we were trying to make peace on the Bougainville issue between the Government and Bougainvilleans. That degenerated into a problem of dealing with Bougainvillean politicians each of whom wanted to be the top dog after a long scrap. I thought about how to deal with this situation and talked to various psychologists and lots and lots of people and nobody actually had any bright ideas. When one talks to multinational companies everybody paddles their canoe in a particular direction by spending a lot of money and taking a lot of time. The thought occurred to me that if we could put those people into a marae setting then maybe we could use Maori cultural practice to encourage those people to start speaking to each other. So we left all the little people behind and brought only the chiefs down. 
The first day we spent in Hopa Hopa and to my surprise who was at the front of the audience but Dame Te Atairangikaahu. There we learnt about Tainui’s history. As is Dame Te Atairangikaahu’s custom she did not speak but she had a lot of people there speaking and we could see she was orchestrating much of what was said. 
The thing I particularly recall on that occasion was the story of King Tawhiao who—those members who understand a little of Tainui’s history will remember—was the chief who encouraged his people to throw the guns in the river. There were some Bougainvilleans who were a real damn nuisance because they would not throw their guns down. There was no point my telling them as a Pakeha but coming from the people of Tainui represented there by their queen who was giving full authority to what was being said the Bougainvillean leaders’ eyes were out on stalks and they talked about it for the next 2 weeks. They did not throw their guns in the sea but they certainly put them into steel containers. 
As I said yesterday was a demonstration of huge national support for a national icon. I convey my deepest respects to the people of Tainui on behalf of all the people in my electorate and I would just like to thank Tainui. I watched them quietly putting all their arrangements in place for the wonderful display of a royal tangi. Everything just happened with calm efficiency and they did a fantastic job. 
Haere e hoa ki te whaea ki te Papa haere atu ra. 
[ 
Depart to mother Earth friend farewell indeed. 
] 
God speed. 
Motion agreed to. 
Honourable members stood as a mark of respect.