Fox Marama: Taranaki Iwi Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFox Marama: Taranaki Iwi Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 15 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9759. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā. Anō nā ka tuku mihi ki a koutou kua hui nei i tēnei rangi he rangi whakahirahira tēnei. E tika me pānuihia te hītori o tēnei rohe o Taranaki Iwi o Atiawa ki roto i te pukapuka o Te Pāremata nei ko Te Hansard tēnā.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. And so I acknowledge you who have gathered here on this important day today. It is fitting that the history of this region of the tribe of Taranaki and of Te Atiawa is read in that official publication of Parliament Hansard.]Hansardis where we record every single word that is uttered in this House. For time immemorial you will be able to look back and find the words said about your people our people and this nation in this House. In fact the first time I understood that I had been reading a research paper into the native schools of Aotearoa and in the Hansard of the debate in this House it said that “the time has come to decide whether we should exterminate the natives or civilise them.” No way—they did not actually use those words. Well yes they did and we found them in the Hansard of this House when discussing the Native Schools Act 1867. So when I entered Parliament a little over a year ago now the first thing I did was roam the hallways looking for the place they discussed that. I wanted to see the seats those men sat in when they talked about exterminating our people. I wanted to see the building that housed that debate. I was happy to find that it had been burnt down in a fire and what we stand in today and the adjoining buildings is what replaced it. I thought: “Well there you go.”Though the fire burnt down the building the record remains—the record of those discussions of the extermination of our people. So it is right that we read into the history of this place the names of our rangatira the injustices that were carried out against them in Taranaki in Te Atiawa—in fact it is very difficult to sit here as a member of Parliament and listen to that record. The first time I did it I was bawling. I just could not believe that I was sitting here listening to the injustice of this place on our people. See that is why I have got a tissue because it is hard it is difficult. It is difficult not just for us here. Obviously it is far more difficult for you all and for our tamariki our mokopuna.Then we think of all of those ancestors who did not make it to this day when 30 years ago they started to talk about bringing a claim; when 20 years ago they prepared the papers; when all through the years since they have been negotiating trying to get some settlement. Think of those who did not make it to see the outcome of their efforts.Adrian Rurawhe described the magnitude of these things. Let us talk about the magnitude for a little bit. Here is the real-life magnitude of the Treaty process and the settlement of this country. When I walk out of the Wellington Railway Station I am met with the statue of Mahatma Gandhi—fantastic! I like Gandhi—he is a good guy. But where is Te Whiti o Rongomai and where is Tohu Kākahi? Mahatma Gandhi reputedly took his stance on peaceful protest from their movement—from your movement. And yet there is his proud statue standing there. And I look around and go: “What country am I in?”. Where are the symbols of our people that recognise their great sacrifice and their foundation in the way that we view one another and who in all humility—despite everything that was thrown against them—still stood up and said: “I am here for peace.”?Te Whiti o Rongomai 1881 in which year he talked about Parihaka said: “Though the lions rage still I am for peace … Though I be killed I yet shall live; though dead I shall live in peace which will be the accomplishment of my aim. The future is mine and little children when asked hereafter as to the author of peace shall say”—not Mahatma Gandhi but—“ ‘Te Whiti’ and I will bless them.”Oh my goodness. That is the magnitude of what we have to overcome in our time right now in every moment we sit in this House and every time we debate whether or not we want to recognise someone’s Treaty rights in this bill or that bill. Every time we come here and debate with the Government of the day how we can try to redress the disparities that have come about through years and years of the things that have been described here today we have to uphold the legacy of Te Whiti.It is by no accident that we have a member’s bill now in my name—to be fair I took it over from my learned colleague Te Ururoa Flavell—for Parihaka Day. It is no accident and yet just last week we met two beautiful young women who came to us with a petition about the Land Wars. They never knew growing up and attending school in the place where they lived that just down the road raupatu war the loss of life in the settling of this land had happened—just down the road. We do not teach it in our schools. We do not tell the shared history of our nation. Our children do not know that more lives were lost in the settling of this land by Kiwis New Zealanders than in the First World War—for our people. Yet we do not acknowledge it.So Parihaka has become a symbol not just of peace but of the future with the group that has been headed and chaired by the honourable Dame Tariana Turia. In all your humility you have not looked to the grievances of the past but you have looked to the future to find ways forward to change the situation that we find ourselves in. I honour you your resilience and your strength and your determination to hold on to the white feather not as some people want to label it as a symbol of cowardice—please! Let us embrace our own symbols. That feather represents the peaceful movement and the actions of great rangatira that we can emulate today through forward progressive thinking.We as a Government can join with that group your people our tamariki to carve out a place of the way we should live in a duality of nationhood for all time and for ever. I am honoured and humbled to be here today in the presence of these people and to recognise the efforts of their ancestors in carving out this nation. I commend this bill to the House. Tēnā koutou katoa.