Okeroa Mahara: Port Nicholson Block (Taranaki Whanui ki Te Upoko  o Te Ika) Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading 
Okeroa Mahara: Port Nicholson Block (Taranaki Whanui ki Te Upoko  o Te Ika) Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:650;Page:19155] 
Hon MAHARA OKEROA (Minister of State) 
: 
A tena koe te Wahine o Poupou o te Whare. There are just a few things I need to say to my colleagues. The first is to Pita Paraone: we are very inclusive people. Ahakoa te tika mai o te whakapapa ra a to tamahine i tana hokitanga mai ki te rohe o Taranaki.  
[ 
Although the genealogy of your daughter when she came back to the region of Taranaki is accurate. 
] 
I thank my colleague Te Ururoa Flavell for such a very historically erudite presentation. I say that without any facetiousness whatsoever. Kua pai te kupu “erudite”! 
A tena tatau. Ehara tenei tu e tu mihi atu ano ki a koutou e te iwi e nga whanaunga engari kua noho i te taha o koutou ra a te Whare Ariki ara Tainui nui tonu a Taupiri Maunga Pirongia Kakepuku Titiraupenga. Tena koutou e noho ngaitahi ai i runga me ki nga korero tawhito o nga kiwai o te kete. Tena koutou e tukuna atu nga mihi ki a koutou. 
[ 
So greetings to us. I am not actually getting up to formally welcome you the people and relatives but merely to acknowledge the times spent with those of you of the household of the King movement and Tainui at large beneath the mantle of Mount Taupiri Pirongia Kakepuku and Titiraupenga. Greetings to you living as one in your ways so steeped in history. My regards to you and congratulations. 
]  
I am absolutely totally privileged to be standing here today. It is a kind of life cycle. If we live long enough like Parekura Horomia and me then in our life cycle we have a variety of experiences. I use that as a kind of exemplar because my life cycle began by being born as someone has alluded to into a legacy of tribal disillusionment marginalisation and poverty—socially culturally economically and spiritually. The privilege here is that I am old enough—ehara i te kaumatua tinana [ 
not old physically 
]—to now participate in an extraordinarily historic day. 
I am not the only one who has gone through that kind of experience debilitating as it was. We are all descendants of that experience. But the test is being able to manage the experience and do more than merely survive. The test is a gruesome test but it has also I suppose set pathways going forward for all of us. 
This afternoon I listened to a waiata that was being sung. It went like this: “E toru nga mea nga mea nunui …”. Well I want to change the words. It reminded me that this is not the only muru raupatu experience that Taranaki whanui is going through. It reminds me of what happened in Taranaki. It is the same as what happened in Tainui and the same as what happened in Tauranga—absolute and total muru me te raupatu. We have the experience again here in Te Upoko o Te Ika: ko nga mahi taurekareka nanakia hoki o ratau ki te tahae whenua. 
[ 
their wretched and scandalous methods of taking land by stealth 
.] 
We can go across the straits of Cook Strait Te Moana o Raukawakawa and it is there as well. A tribe—very peaceful it was—e tipu ake mai raro i te tihi maunga titohea Taranaki [ 
that sprang up from beneath the summit of barren Mount Taranaki 
] has gone through that debilitating process three times; the same people. 
In respect of Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka we have a Tainui-Taranaki collective claim there as well. I ask members what that says about the resilience of our people. At the very least we can say that it is absolutely extraordinary. There is a whakataukitanga korero that I want to refer to here. It is a kind of philosophical message that goes like this: “Whangai mai to hoariri.” The literal meaning of this phrase has something to do with “feed thy enemy”. What Taranaki has done here in that regard as has been referred to is the extension of a statement of forgiveness. I can understand whence that came. Mehemea kua mau ai koutou i te raukura titia te raukura a maunga rongo [ 
If you have worn the comb-like feather the feather of amnesty 
] then it is understood what it means. What an incredibly powerful gesture the first of its kind in any claim so far. 
I pose the question about what this country could have been were it to have grown from the promises of the Treaty of Waitangi rather than the breaches: “In the Treaty’s words lived the potential to disavow colonisation as previously known with its dire consequences for native peoples around the world. The parties to the Treaty had an opportunity to show that with goodwill it was possible for new settlers and indigenous people to gain and learn from each other. But almost immediately that opportunity slipped away.” In the end our colonial experience was classic not unique. The mistakes of other nations which we had the chance to avoid we instead repeated. 
I think that kind of analysis is huge because the consequences of this failure are great and multiple. Aotearoa New Zealand is perhaps a lesser nation as a result of the Crown’s failure to uphold its obligations to so many generations of our people and particularly those who have not survived to see kua whakatutuki mai nga moemoea a kui ma a tauheke katoa. [ 
the dreams of all the old folk men and women coming to fruition 
] But all has not been lost. I take great heart and positiveness from what we as a Government have done under the leadership of Takuta Cullen me ana nei Minita tautoko. 
In closing I also give a little praise to Taranaki whanui up there in the Speaker’s gallery for their leadership wisdom vision and creative approach to being able to be here and resolve those issues that confronted them as a people. To a great extent that is related to the ability they had and have as leaders in our society today. 
No reira e te iwi me te Whare ka nui aku nei mihi ehara ki a koutou anake engari ki te katoa e wakakopekope mai nei i raro i te tahuhu o te pou Whare tihei mauri ora ki a tatau.  
[ 
So to the people and the House I am full of admiration not just for you but for everyone assembled here under the ridgepole of this House. The breath of life to us all 
.] 
Bill read a first time.  
Bill referred to the Maori Affairs Committee. 
Waiata