Tirikatene RinoRINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker ā tēnā koutou aku rangatira tēnā koutou rau rangatira mā. E ngā whanaunga o Ngāti Hineuru tēnā koutou nō koutou tēnei rā nau mai whakatau mai ki Te Whare Pāremata e takatū nei; āe he rā nui tēnei he rā whakahirahira. Whakatau mai kei te pire o Ngāti Hineuru whakatau kei Te Whare Pāremata kei Te Ana o Ngā Raiona. Āpiti hōno tātai hōno rātou te hunga mate ki a rātou āpiti hōno tātai hōno tātou te hunga ora ki a tātou. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou ā tēnā tātau katoa. [Greetings to you Mr Assistant Speaker and to you my esteemed leaders and you of a hundredfold. Acknowledgments to you the relatives of Ngāti Hineuru this is your day and so welcome draw hither to Parliament standing here in readiness; yes this is a great and magnificent day. Welcome to the Ngāti Hineuru's bill to Parliament the Lions' Den. The lines are drawn the dead to themselves and the living to ourselves. Greetings acknowledgments and salutations to you collectively and to us all.]It is a great honour for me to stand and speak in support of and endorse this bill the Hineuru Claims Settlement Bill at its third reading. I had the great honour—indeed this was the last bill that I considered when I was a member of the Māori Affairs Committee. In my relatively short time in this House in respect of the work that the Māori Affairs Committee has done it is a great honour—that is all I can say and I do acknowledge all the members who have participated in the great work that we do in that committee.Today is Ngāti Hineuru's day—Ngāti Hineuru whom I would like to sum up as stamping their authority and indigeneity right across the motu today through the passage of this legislation. I guess that not too many folks would have heard of Ngāti Hineuru before but after today and through the passage of this legislation we know that Ngāti Hineuru are reasserting their rangatiratanga and I am just so delighted by that. So often when you consider the Hawke's Bay or go inland Ngāti Hineuru have been overlooked but that is no longer the case. I am just delighted to be able to share with the whānau who have travelled far and wide to come here on this special day because these settlements are more than just acknowledging the historical wrongs and grievances that have taken place. As I have mentioned these settlements are also about reasserting our history.That history for us as Māori is summed up in one word and that is whakapapa. Our oral traditions and our whole genetic make-up come from those stories: the stories of the men and women our ancestors who created that history. They are stories of everyday life wars marriages and death. They are all those strands that we hold so dear to our hearts in memory of who we are and where we have come from. I do want to acknowledge my tuahine Louisa Wall who gave a very eloquent speech outlining the terrible history and the terrible atrocities that have been inflicted upon Ngāti Hineuru. That is so appropriate as she is a descendant herself and I just acknowledge her for her whakaaro and such a moving speech.I do not wish to traverse the history but I do note from this settlement certain names that have come out from other settlements that we have passed through this House and through the Māori Affairs Committee of which I was a member. There are names of places such as Ōmarunui and Pētane and the conflicts and battles that went on in those places—places like Ngātapa. These names have come up in the settlements with the Tūranga iwi Rongawhakaata Te Aitangi-a-Māhaki and also with Maungaharuru-Tangitū. So not only are we reasserting the rangatiratanga of Ngāti Hineuru but also we are acknowledging the associations of the shared history that they and also other iwi have been impacted by.The atrocities were grave. We know about the systematic plunder pursuit and imprisonment of their tūpuna and also the modus operandi of the Crown in terms of its purchasing and the fact that so much of Ngāti Hineuru's land was effectively given to other iwi. They had to suffer the indignity of being totally excluded and made virtually landless through the Crown's actions so I do acknowledge all of the journey that Ngāti Hineuru has been on in order to arrive at this momentous day. It was a long journey and we have heard many stories. I am inspired by the kōrero that Ngāti Hineuru Iwi Inc. and Te Kōpere gave to the committee and by how positive and how on to it they are in terms of their ushering in this new post-settlement era for Ngāti Hineuru.But if I can backtrack a bit we have looked at the history of Ngāti Hineuru through this bill. I am the member for Te Tai Tonga. That is the largest electorate in the country so I cover all of Wellington all of Te Wai Pounamu whiti atu and over to Wharekauri and so whenever I see the word Wharekauri" my eyes choke up. I noted that—it is only one line in the bill; one line in the historical record—in 1866 I think 34 Ngāti Hineuru were with a total number of about 86 I think taken as prisoners to Wharekauri to the Chatham Islands without trial. They were imprisoned in the harshest of conditions for over 2 years. One can only marvel—I mean just wonder—at how those tūpuna endured all of that. But what really struck me in the historical account is that it just says: "In 1866 the prisoners escaped." Then they joined the Crown in another battle at Ngātapa.If we can just think back to the amazing ingenuity of Māori—the amazing ingenuity of the tūpuna of these people being imprisoned on the Chatham Islands hundreds of miles away from the mainland and they were able to escape. Not only just escape; how did they get back from the Chatham Islands to Tūranga—to Gisborne? They had to take ahold of a Pākehā sailing ship and sail it all the way back the opposite way from the Chatham Islands to the East Coast. One can only marvel at the daring and the adventurous spirit and the desire of their tūpuna to get back home. I can just picture it right now. I can just picture Te Kooti and I can just picture Hineuru tūpuna and there were Rongowhakaata tūpuna there Maungaharuru-Tangitū—they were all huddling there and saying: "Right guys we've got to get back home. How are we going to do this?". I would suppose that one of their group would have said: "I know uncle. If you get the boat I'll get us home." That could have been a Hineuru tupuna but that is probably what took place. They were able to get hold of a sailing boat—Meka Whaitiri: Schooner.RINO TIRIKATENE: A schooner? Oh well OK. A bit of a nautical dramatical twist—ha ha! But they were able to get ahold of that schooner and make their way back gibbing and gybing—masters of the waves of the sea. I think that is what I would like Ngāti Hineuru to take from their settlement: draw on the inspiration of their tūpuna and the great bravery that they had in being true to their convictions and standing up for their iwi and for their people. I am inspired by that and every time I see that story I think you know it would make a wonderful movie to capture the adventurous spirit of their tūpuna. I do acknowledge Ngāti Hineuru and I commend this bill to the House. Kia ora tātou."