Tirikatene Rino: Raukawa Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Raukawa Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 06 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12415. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Third ReadingRINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga):Ātiheiwa mauri ora ki tewhaiao ki Te AoMārama. Eaku rangatiraNgāti Raukawatēnā koutou. Haere mainau maipiki mai ki te WharePāremata ki teana raiona etakatūnei. Haere mai ki tewhakatutukiingāwawata orātoumā.Nō koutoutēneirā;nō reiratēnā koutoutēnā koutou. Erau rangatiramāhurinoai te Wharetēnā koutoutēnā koutou ātēnātātou katoa.[Behold the breath of life to the World of Light and Enlightenment. ToNgāti Raukawa my esteemed elders greetings to you collectively. Welcome and come hither to the House of Parliament the lion’s den standing in readiness ascend it. Come forth to realise the aspirations of those who have passed on. This is your day; therefore congratulations and acknowledgements to you collectively. To the many leaders throughout the House greetings salutations and acknowledgements to you collectively and to us all. ]Like an orator with a favouritepepeha once again I stand and say that to understand whakapapa is to understandMāori history. Whakapapa is the ties that linkMāori by a common strand of DNA and it is about how the history of the past is for ever remembered by those of the present because of a shared history with a common ancestor. But whakapapa genealogy and oral history—kōreroonamata (ancient history )—is not about just the ancestors of past times; it is also about the here and now. It is about what is happening in the present and being able to guess what the future holds.I would like to welcome thewhānau fromNgāti Raukawa who are here. It is a great privilege for me to stand to tautoko this Raukawa Claims Settlement Bill at this first reading. It is in my time as a member on theMāori Affairs Committee that we have been able to listen to and read the historical accounts of iwiMāori who have been able to settle their grievances with the Crown. I also endorse thekōrero of our chair my whanaunga Tau that the history contained in these bills should be taught in every school throughout the motu throughout the country. I know that other speakers will talk specifically about the various elements and redress thatNgāti Raukawa will receive in this bill but for today I would like to take the time as I do tokōrero about those extraordinary times of the 1860s and the significance of those times relative to today.The 1860s brought significant upheaval in our young nation. Governor Thomas Gore Browne’s hui for loyalistMāori atKohimārama in 1860 proved thatPākehā Governments had no real intention of investigatingMāori hope and aspirations of the time for in 1862 the return of George Grey—HōriKerei—from South Africa was about to set the scene once again. Fresh from oppressing natives and coloureds over in South Africa he blew back into the country in the early 1860s to finish off what he started in Waitara 20 years earlier in starting the first Taranaki Wars. Also he managed to kick up some dust by crossing the Mangatawhiri in July of 1863 thereby starting the Waikato Wars. TheKīngitanga’s refusal to sell any more land ultimately forced the Governor and Parliament to invade the Waikato. In the 1860s the New Zealand Parliament was semi-autonomous and Grey still had some executive powers. It was at this time thatRaukawa as staunch supporters of theKīngitanga were drawn into the WaikatoKīngitanga confederacy because of that thing called whakapapa that I spoke of earlier.Ngāti RaukawaNgāti Maniapoto WaikatoNgātiHauā—these great tribes of the Tainui had shared a common ancestry but on a more contemporary level there were many families ofNgāti Raukawa who had intermarried with the families of Waikato and the Tainui confederation ofKāwhia as well asNgāti Maniapoto. It was this genealogy that made theKīngitanga strong. It was their staunchness that put pressure on Auckland and the Government. Grey master of the conquer-and-divide method of operation brought in New Zealand’s next biggest wave of immigrant: the soldier. Grey brought 18000 soldiers into this country during his second term as Governor. Raukawa suffered because of this whakapapa but especially at Rangiaowhia east of Te Awamutu in February and a few months later in March and April atŌrākau in the year 1864.Ōrākau was the place where innocent people were slaughtered as they fled from their trenches. It was during this battle that Rewi Maniapoto gave his famous retort to GilbertMair’s plea for theMāori to surrender.Rewi’s famous words were translated as: “Friend I shall go on fighting you for ever and ever.” Rewi was a fighting chief ofNgāti Maniapoto and leader of one group of rebels that included many individuals and families ofNgāti Raukawa. They joined because their immediate aunties uncles cousins and grandparents were in direct conflict with Crown forces. For those Raukawa families immediate whakapapa would have been the link—immediate kin of today rather than a shared common ancestor of some 800 years previously. Like in the Waikato there were Raukawa families who were related to the Tauranga tribes and were also drawn into the conflict in 1864 and 1867 in the Bay of Plenty. By the time Grey had Waikato and theKīngitanga suppliant there were still pockets of Raukawa resistance in parts of Tauranga.In 1865Raukawa’s interests in Waikato-Tainui land were extinguished which seriously affected their ability to sustain and maintain their tino rangatiratanga and their mana motuhake. They lost important leaders in their conflict with the Crown. Some carried the stigma of the term “rebel”. Well the Crown of the 1860s may have thought they were rebels then but today the Crown thinks of them as victims of an oppressive colonialist Government and will make the necessary apology to Raukawa and also redress.This bill will also address one of the country’s most shameful pieces of land legislation the 20000 acres lost from thePouakani Block which eventually turned into the incorporated township of Mangakino whose beneficiaries are from a completely different tribe Kahungunu from southern Wairarapa. Could there be a more visible wrong than this travesty of justice? People from Wairarapa having mana over 20000 acres in the township of Mangakino—could there be a more poisonous example of how to alienate rightful owners from their land?But that was not the only case of Raukawa being left out of certain entitlements that were negotiated in the 1860s. They were left out of theTaupō-nui-a-Tia Block and this also is a great mamae within the manyhapū ofNgāti Raukawa. The omission atTaupō caused much suffering to thosehapū of Raukawa. The incidences of thePouakani andTaupō-nui-a-Tia land blocks are a glaring example of Government oppression and ignorance. Being from the south a very similar situation occurred there as “landless natives” folks from the top of the South Island were given lands right at the bottom of Stewart Island to compensate them for their landlessness. These stories are very prevalent right across the country and it is great that we can bring them to light through the enactment of this legislation. With the enactment of this settlement bill thewhānau andhapū ofNgāti Raukawa will be able to start their road back to economic wealth and sustainability.I am looking forward to joining with my colleagues on theMāori Affairs Committee as we awhi the progress of the bill through this House and in particular to hearing submissions up inNgāti Raukawa territory. I would just like to conclude my contribution there and I mihi toNgāti Raukawa who have travelled down here today. I commend this bill to the House. Kia oratātou.