Mahuta Nanaia: Waitaha Claims Settlement Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMahuta Nanaia: Waitaha Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 05 June 2013. Volume:690;Page:10833. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato): Ā tuatahi tēnei ka tuku aku mihi ki a koutou Waitaha kua eke mai nei i runga i te papa nei i roto i tēnei Whare nō reira ki a koutou katoa e kaha ana ki te kawea nei i tēnei kaupapa i waenganui i a koutou kia whakatakoto i mua i te aroaro o te Kāwanatanga te Karauna hei tutuki i tēnei kaupapa tēnei te mihi atu ki a koutou katoa.[Firstly I extend my greetings to you Waitaha who have arrived here on the floor in this House and worked so hard amongst yourselves to bring this matter forth and place it before the Government and the Crown to finish off. I therefore commend you all.]It gives me great pleasure to be able to speak in the third reading of this particular bill the Waitaha Claims Settlement Bill. Having listened to the previous contributions I was trying to think what contribution—what small morsel of a contribution—I might make today. I would not hope to try to express and retell your history because much of it cannot be told within the context of this bill. Much of it really still lies within the hearts and minds of the generations that have descended from Hakaraia to this day. But we share a common thread. The common thread goes back to the 1860s—back to a time when our ancestors were labelled with the current lexicon of that day as “rebels”. Tame Iti would have called them “freedom fighters”. Today I would much rather prefer we were “sovereigns”—Māori sovereigns fighting for something that we knew defined us as who we were in our own country holding on to our land.So I share that connection to the extent that the label and classification of “rebels” from Hakaraia’s time down I think provided a bit of a stigma. I can say that because I went to school not so long ago when the history books told only one side of the story. In that story they said why Waikato were rebels. The effect that that had within the classroom was that every Pākehā child in my classroom stigmatised my value my worth and the history that I was told from my ancestors because the history books said we were rebels. I am pleased that there are young people here today because what this bill does is it shines Waitaha’s light on a dark day in history. The colonial Government had created some very dingy and suspect feelings towards our people and as Māori sovereigns who fought for our lands who fought to retain what we had who fought to ensure that nobody could critically take away what belonged to us today some part of that poor history has been redressed. So what it has done is it has shone Waitaha’s light on the Crown’s dark days in history that it created.What it has also done though is it has enabled the light to shine out because this is an intergenerational settlement. When I read the terms of the settlement in terms of the endowments for education the redress in terms of restoring a key marae for your people the redress in terms of establishing the endowment fund and all the statutory acknowledgments your financial and commercial redress—all that in total sum is by some small measure an opportunity to say to the next generation: “Hey if people said your tūpuna were rebels don’t you believe it. Your tūpuna fought for what they knew was right so that you would have two legs to stand on in your own rohe and on your land.” I am without a doubt assured by the fact that because there are so many young people here today your history has been carried quite proudly within your people. Now we have an opportunity to open that history up to the rest of New Zealand and it is an important thing to do as the speaker before me said. Once stories are told once the history is corrected then New Zealand can walk forward into a proud future that says: “Hey we’re trying to do things a bit better. We realise hurt was caused in the past but reconciliation begins with acknowledging that damage was done in the past and it was wrong. It was wrong and it was not right and it hurt a lot of people through the generations. Now is the time to heal and look forward.”I want to commend the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations because he has certainly taken it upon himself to be so ambitious around the aspiration of getting all the Treaty settlements done that we can only support it. In this House there are very few times when members of Parliament come together to support legislation with a huge majority but this is one of the times—Treaty settlements. We know that in order to heal the past and reconcile and move forward into the future the Treaty settlement process is absolutely critical. Once that is over and done with it goes back into your court andthat says that it is now our challenge to make it work. I am not fazed by the sums of money or the things like that and neither should you be because it is what you do with it. If a story of Treaty settlements can be told within New Zealand around our collective experience no matter what sum of money you are given it is actually what you do with it. It is how your people grow how you prosper how you ensure an intergenerational perspective to opportunities going forward. It is going to be how we as iwi collaborate and I think that is the real benefit of a Treaty settlement landscape that positions Māori the Māori economy and the Māori development future of our people in a far stronger position so that we can weather the storms now and into the future.I wish you well. I wish the young people well and tell them to remember this day. Remember this day because it is the day that your tūpuna and your kaumātua who are here with you have given you the opportunity to look forward unencumbered by the heaviness of the past. I wish you well because now is the beginning of another journey and another opportunity. I want to thank everybody who has been involved the negotiators on Waitaha’s side and certainly on the Crown’s side to be able to ensure we have got something to be able to acknowledge that Waitaha’s torch is now shining on the history that must be told and cannot be forgotten. Kia ora koutou katoa.