Wall Louisa: Hineuru Claims Settlement Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWall Louisa: Hineuru Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 24 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11197. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa):Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare e ngā mana e ngā reo rau rangatira mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa. Ngā mihi rā ki ngā whanaunga ngā uri o Ngāti Hineuru tēnā tātou.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and to the powers voices and esteemed ones of a hundredfold acknowledgments salutations and greetings to us all. Acknowledgments indeed to the relatives and descendants of Ngāti Hineuru;greetings to us.]I stand here as a descendant of Ngāti Hineuru incredibly proud to be in the House in the second reading of the Hineuru Claims Settlement Bill. What I have decided to do is to actually let the voice of Ngāti Hineuru speak in this process and what I want to do is quote from some of the submissions that were heard by my colleagues during the select committee process.The first such is Ivy Kahukiwa-Smith and I quote from her submission: “I get emotional thinking about the journey we have travelled. The most powerful aspect that has been hard for me has been hearing our histories and our stories. The stories of our struggles our fights the loss of life and whenua and the consequence of being nearly landless are stories that have been really hard to hear. However in learning these stories it is important that this information is never lost. I am excited for the future because there is light beyond all of [the] pain and anguish suffered by my tupuna and it starts again with the finalisation of this settlement. Our Hineuru people deserve this. I think about all of those people who have been victims of this claim. I think about our old people who fought over many years and who are not alive to see the settlement come to fruition. Our old people deserve this. This settlement is about them. It is about making sure they are recognised for the mamae they have suffered as a consequence of the actions of the Crown. This is also about our future and about building a stronger Hineuru. With this settlement we are able to make sure our people are well looked after. It is as much about the past as it is about our future.”I would also like to quote from the submission of Karauna Brown: “Our people were peaceful people but the Crown believed that we were rebels and so we were attacked. They were peaceful but being at Omarunui they were absolutely slaughtered. Our people were then imprisoned and taken to the Chatham Islands where they lived in inhumane conditions before coming back with Te Kooti. Our people were then stripped of their land by the Crown through various means and now we are centrally located in a very small settlement; Te Haroto. There was a huge mamae for me from the battle of Omarunui because in that slaughter was my own koro and his name is Te Wano. He is on one of the poupou in our whare. Because of my Koro I continue this journey today. He started it and now I hope I can take it over and finally finish it. He deserves it and so too my mokopuna. As a negotiator when I heard the Crown offer the apology I had a bit of a tangi. This is because it brought back a lot of the mamae that we carry from the raupatu. It brings back all of the memories of the stories. One major aspect of the settlement for me is recognition of who we are as a people. We are not a hapū of Kahungunu or Tuwharetoa but we are an iwi in our own right. This settlement has been about us fighting to rebuild our mana as an iwi. For far too long we have been subsumed into other iwi. This settlement provides us with another standing to be recognised as an iwi and to stand proud as Hineuru.”Toi Tāwhai’s submission says: “The reason why I support this Bill is because of how proud I am to be Hineuru how proud I am to have been part of this journey and how I believe it is an important step in us moving forward as an iwi. Given the effort of all negotiators involved and how long it has taken to come this far I believe we got the best settlement we could have in the circumstances. … I think that this settlement will make our future brighter and allow us to remedy the grievances that the Crown has inflicted on us in the past. It will enable us … to move forward with mana. The Hineuru settlement does not compensate us for all of our grievances nor does it satisfy every single member of Hineuru. No settlement will ever be sufficient to fix or to right the wrongs of the past or to satisfy everyone. However as someone who is involved in this kaupapa I can say that we have worked tirelessly to achieve this outcome for our people.”I would now like to quote from Tirohia Bridger’s submission: “For me this bill is the end of a long hard journey that my mother began when this kaupapa started decades ago. Her name is Hine (Gladys) Campbell and her life’s work has been working for her iwi Hineuru. At times this mahi for her was very difficult and her work has not been rewarded. She also did not get to see the benefits that this Treaty settlement will bring for the iwi. But I always remember that she never got involved for selfish reasons. One of my mother’s catchphrases when she used to take me around on hui was: ‘When you start doing this mahi never ever focus on the money. When you are working for Hineuru you focus on Hineuru.’ Therefore for me the settlement is about my kuia our generation and the future mokopuna to come.”I would now like to quote from Rēnata Bush: “This type of mahi takes a big toll on the wairua and for me it is important to continue to have karakia. I pray to our heavenly father that we complete this settlement very soon so that we can let go of the pain and mamae of our people and begin to work toward a better future for our mokopuna.”And finally Tūhuiao Kahukiwa: “I remember my kuia and koroua say[ing] to me years ago—I was a mokopuna then. My old people said to me ‘Mokopuna this is all for you. We are fighting for this for you.’ Now that I have grown up I say to you my mokopuna ‘Moko this is all for you.’ I was the mokopuna then but now I am still fighting for my mokopuna. I don’t think my children will see the eventual fruits of this settlement. My mokopuna might see some fruits but the next generation after that will be hugely rewarded for the pain and suffering caused by my old people. This is for them. We want to finalise this settlement because the future is for Hineuru. It is no one else’s to take it away from them. We are ready to build a stronger future for our mokopuna. I wholeheartedly support the completion of the Hineuru settlement and the finalisation of the Hineuru Claims Settlement Bill.”I read these out because I think it is important that the voice of Ngāti Hineuru is recorded in Hansard and because for me it has always been about the power of our people through this truth and reconciliation process to get to a point of settlement that is very much about our aroha for our tūpuna but it is also about us accepting what has happened to us and actually focusing on the future. Every iwi in Aotearoa have their stories Hineuru have their own stories but I think it is incumbent upon us in Parliament to make sure that the voices of the people whom we represent and the voices of the people who are involved in the Treaty settlement process actually are the most important voice in this House.I have been listening intently actually to the whole focus on identity and the status of an iwi and how important it is for iwi to be recognised. One of the issues that Hineuru brought up in the select committee process was that it wants recognition through the census. I guess it is an opportunity to recommend to the Māori Affairs Committee that it is an opportunity for you to write to Minister Foss who is our Minister of Statistics and jointly with the Minister of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations to actually create not a precedent but a principle: that if iwi are recognised through the Treaty settlement process then they automatically should be included in the next census. I actually thank Hineuru for bringing that to the attention of the House because it is something that we can do and that we can include possibly not as part of the settlement but as a principle going forward.So with my colleagues I commend this bill to the House and I am incredibly proud to be here today to witness the passage of this legislation. Kia ora.