Sharples Pita: Ngāti Rangiteaorere Claims Settlement Bill Ngāti Rangiwewehi Claims Settlement Bill Tapuika Claims Settlement Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSharples Pita: Ngāti Rangiteaorere Claims Settlement Bill Ngāti Rangiwewehi Claims Settlement Bill Tapuika Claims Settlement Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 09 April 2014. Volume:697;Page:17150. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Minister of Māori Affairs)on behalf of theMinister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations: I move That the Ngāti Rangiteaorere Claims Settlement Bill the Ngāti Rangiwewehi Claims Settlement Bill and the Tapuika Claims Settlement Bill be now read a third time. Nā reira Te Arawa waka Te Arawa iwi Te Arawa tangata nau mai hara mai rā. Hara mai rā ki tā koutou Whare kia whakaoti ai tēnei kerēme. Tēnei te wā whakamutunga mō tēnei kerēme nā reira he hōnore māku te tū ki te mihi ki a koutou me ngā tini mate kua mauria mai e koutou ki rō Whare. Nā reira rātou kua ngaro atu i a koutou i ēnei wiki i te mārama nei haere. Haere okioki pai ki te Kaihanga hei whāriki mā tātou nei. Nā reira koutou ngā mate ki a koutou ā ko tātou hoki te hunga ora ki a tātou. Nā reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.[Therefore to you the canoe of Te Arawa the people of Te Arawa welcome welcome. Welcome indeed to our House to finalise this claim. This is the final stage for this claim so it is indeed an honour for me to rise and acknowledge you collectively and the very many deaths you have brought with you into the House. Therefore to those who have passed in these weeks and this month farewell. Journey on and rest well with the Creator to pave the way for us here. So you the deceased remain there amongst yourselves as we the living remain here amongst ourselves too. Therefore acknowledgments and salutations to you all.]Today we welcome the sons and daughters of the great Te Arawa waka. I do not usually say that in front of Te Ururoa Flavell but he is not in the House anyway—he has probably gone for a run. I am honoured to welcome the people of Ngāti Rangiwewehi Ngāti Rangiteaorere and Tapuika for the third reading of legislation arising from the omnibus Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru Claims Settlement Bill. Iwi eternally bound by whakapapa for ever bound by history and today in this House finally bound by justice. We remember the tīpuna who a millennia ago set off from the sands of Whenuakura. Today their journey reaches Parliament as Ngāti Rangiwewehi Ngāti Rangiteaorere and Tapuika once again work together for the future of their people.Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru is a large natural grouping of these three iwi of Te Arawa whose members are based in and around Te Puke and Rotorua. Although they have negotiated some aspects of their settlements as part of the tokotoru they have signed separate deeds of settlement. They have shown whanaungatanga on the one hand as well as rangatiratanga. Tēnā koutou.The Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru omnibus legislation here gives effect to aspects of all three deeds of settlement signed by the Crown between 2012 and 2013 with all three iwi and will settle all outstanding historical Treaty and Waitangi claims for Ngāti Rangiteaorere Ngāti Rangiwewehi and Tapuika.Ko Tiheia te maunga ko Te Awahou me Kaikaitāhuna ngā awa ko Tarimano te marae ko Puhirua me Ōrangikāhui ngā takotoranga o ngā tipuna ko Rangiwewehi te iwi.[Tiheia is the mountain Te Awahou and Kaikaitāhuna are the riversTarimano is the courtyard and Puhirua and Ōrangikāhui are the resting places of the ancestors. Ngāti Rangiwewehi is the tribe.]The Crown brought war to Tauranga in 1864 and after Ngāti Rangiwewehi supported their traditional allies 290000 acres of land were confiscated. All customary interests in lands returned were compulsorily extinguished. A hundred years later in 1966—in our lifetime—Ngāti Rangiwewehi’s land loss continued with the enforced Crown acquisition of whenua at Ngongotahā. A pump station was built over the ancestral Taniwha Springs which remains to this very day unless something happened overnight.The Crown breached the Treaty of Waitangi in its dealings with the descendants of Ngāti Rangiwewehi. Over generations lands were lost lives were taken and the potential of the iwi was eroded. Today we focus on the future.I acknowledge Ngāti Rangiwewehi’s 2040 strategy and the advancement of Ngāti Rangiwewehi people as Rangiwewehi which captures the essence of what a Treaty settlement should be: to focus the energies into the future while considering the social economic cultural and spiritual growth and activity that affirms and maintains the mana and the tino rangatiratanga over Ngāti Rangiwewehi resources and the knowledge—mātauranga—of Ngāti Rangiwewehi. Ngāti Rangiwewehi tēnā koutou tēnā koutou.He wai kōriporipo nō Waiōhewa ka ū ki Mātaikōtare. Ka koinga te titiro ki ngā uri o Rangiwhakaekea te whakapakari nei i te pupuri i ngā taonga tuku iho o Ngāti Rangiteaorere ka ora e.[The glittering waters from Waiōhewa extend to Mātaikōtare and the glance moves to the descendants of Rangiwhakaeka who are to strengthen this hold over the resources handed down by Ngāti Rangiteaorere for their betterment indeed.]The 1800s saw Ngāti Rangiteaorere drawn into the New Zealand Wars with huge huge consequences. The Native Land Court’s land policies left the Crown with lands that were flat fertile and easily accessible by road. Ngāti Rangiteaorere were left with lands that were fragmented steep inaccessible and uneconomic. Fifty years ago the Tikitere geothermal field prized by generations of Ngāti Rangiteaorere for its medicinal spiritual and economic benefits was taken by the Crown by the Geothermal Energy Act of 1953—the compulsory takeover of an ancestral wāhi tapu. A whakataukī from Ngāti Rangiteaorere kuia i reira captures the challenge of this new Treaty settlement era. Kāhore i hangaia te kupenga hei hopu ika anake ēngari i hangaia kia oioi i roto i te nekeneke o te tai. Awesome Ngāti Rangiteaorere tēnā koutou tēnā koutou. The net is not fashioned purely to catch fish but also to be flexible so that it may flow with the tide—awesome. Ngāti Rangiteaorere tēnā koutou tēnā koutou.Mai i ngā pae maunga i te toro puke e tūkau mai rā i te awa e rere mai ana waiho te whenua ko te takapū o taku tamaiti a Tapuika.[From the mountain range in the distance to the hill that stands before me as the river flows towards me I proclaim the land to be the belly of my son Tapuika.]This ancient claim defining the boundaries of their homelands was made by the tipuna chief Tia aboard the Te Arawa waka. However the arrival of the Crown in this rohe soon brought war to Tia’s people and his ancient claim along with the promises within the Treaty of Waitangi were broken. A series of claims made by others to Tapuika ancestral lands culminated in the Crown land alienation policies that were akin to raupatu punishing Tapuika for taking up arms against the Crown in the 1860s. The land loss was widespread and severe. Tapuika’s loss would lead to the alienation of Tia’s people from their ancestral lands. Deprived of economic social spiritual and cultural autonomy generations of Tapuika families have suffered incalculable loss.This settlement sought to address historical grievances which included the wars in the Bay of Plenty; the Native Land Court; the impact on Tapuika of management modification and degradation of the waterways within Te Takapū o Tapuika; Public Works takings; and the loss of Tapuika’s identity. Today Tapuika can move forward in a positive Treaty relationship to rebuild to restore and to once again thrive. The Tapuika reo revitalisation strategy is an example of what is already taking place—congratulations.All these things the peoples of Ngāti Rangiwewehi Ngāti Rangiteaorere and Tapuika have suffered can never be forgotten and yet these iwi despite that wish to settle their grievances with the Crown with mana and with dignity. So they honour us with their incredible generosity. Ahakoa te hītori o te raupatu kua tae mai koutou. Kua hoki anō kua hoki anō koutou ki konei Ngā Puna Wai o Te Toko Toru.[Despite the history of the confiscation you the Three Water Springs have arrived and returned here repeatedly.]Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru has enabled all three iwi to negotiate collectively with the Crown and also help each other with their individual claims. The spirit of whanaungatanga and rangatiratanga demonstrated by Ngāti Rangiteaorere Ngāti Rangiwewehi and Tapuika has enabled the resolution of claims across three tribes. This cooperative approach is already being replicated across Aotearoa so I thank Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru for leading by example. So many of those who have made this day possible are no longer with us but with this bill’s passing their mana and their mahi kua oti i a rātou [their integrity and the work that they have completed] will for ever be honoured in the laws of this country and in the hearts of you the descendants.Today is the day to remember those who have passed on to resolve grievances with those who are with us today and to plan for those yet to be born. From the sacred marae of Taputapuātea to the beating hearts of Te Arawa to the New Zealand House of Representatives Te Arawa e tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.