Kuriger BarbaraBARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): Thank you Madam Speaker. Nau mai haere mai. As the member for Taranaki - King Country in Parliament on a beautiful day earlier this year we attended the signing of the memorandum. Due to COVID-19 which was happening at the time in Auckland—they were having a COVID-19 scare—it was a much scaled-back event but it was such a beautiful day and none the less a very meaningful event. And I look forward to the day in the future when everyone in your hapū and iwi are able to attend the wider event and the full apology which was actually delayed on that particular occasion.So this is your story and I hope I do some justice to it in the speech that I'm about to give today. Forgive me if there's anything that—you know it's not my story; it's your story but I just want to give a bit of history and a bit of context this afternoon.So because of your inland location Ngāti Maru had limited contact with Europeans during the 1840s and 1850s. And in some respects it may have been better for you all if it had stayed that way because the contact with the Europeans wasn't one of your most memorable occasions as we can all imagine. None of us were there at the time but it must have been an awful event for your people. Ngāti Maru were not involved in the land dealings which led to the war in Taranaki in 1860 and were not directly involved in the subsequent fighting. Involvement was limited to providing refuge to Wiremu Kīngi Te Rangitāke in accordance with the requirements of whanaungatanga. And then it all changed. Because when the Crown confiscated huge tracts of Taranaki to punish so-called rebels in 1865 approximately half the traditional land of Ngāti Maru was included. So many of your main kāinga urupā and wāhi tapu were taken and some have never been returned and for that we—so many years later—are apologising to you.So in the early 1870s the Crown then attempted to promote European settlement on confiscated land by paying some Ngāti Maru compensation for the rights that the confiscation had extinguished. Now one can only imagine how minuscule that probably was and what I would imagine now was probably only an insult to the events that had occurred prior to that time. So in the early 1890s some Ngāti Maru were virtually landless and appealed to the Crown for help. The Crown's response was slow and ineffective and legislation was not enacted until 1907 and the land ultimately provided to Ngāti Maru was poor and of limited size. So when we talk about it being slow and ineffective back at that time between the 1890s and 1907—we're now in 2021—and slow and ineffective are words that have become so much more effectual now given the time that's passed and how slow and ineffective all of this has been for you and your people.We know that the extensive loss of Ngāti Maru land has eroded tribal structures; it's created severe poverty; and damaged the physical cultural and spiritual health of generations of Ngāti Maru people. The intense sense of loss and disconnection is expressed in the following Ngāti Maru lament—and I hope you'll forgive me if I don't quite get the pronunciation right.Maru hāhā hāhā te whenua hāhā he tangata.[Maru of extreme loss and breathlessness the people are gone and gasping for breath.]Hopefully during this settlement process we can help to put some of that breath back into your people.Settlements recognise and right the wrongs of the past. Now that's a statement that's I think over spoken and over said when we talk about righting the wrongs. There is really nothing that we can do that will right the wrongs and I always whenever we're doing a Treaty settlement find myself in the position of saying thank you for the generosity of taking part negotiating and the acceptance in these settlements.But the settlements will help unlock the economic potential boost regional and provincial areas for your people. In 1865 Ngāti Maru had 220000 hectares of land and the vast majority of that land was illegally confiscated by the Crown or sold through dubious deals. And it was a terrible terrible time for your people. The imprisonment of Ngāti Maru members between 1879 and 1881 for peaceful resistance at Parihaka was also a significant burden on the iwi. Something that I often think of—I went to primary and secondary school in Ōpunake where I grew up and not that far from Parihaka. And you know none of us actually ever knew the story at that time. We've only come to learn many of these stories which were not only the attempt to erase them from your memory but the attempt to erase them from our memory—it was a shocking time in our history. And I'm so glad that we are now able to at least rekindle that relationship and move forward together. So the Ngāti Maru settlement will forge a new relationship between the Crown and Ngāti Maru and be a real catalyst for positive change.So once again thank you very much for your generosity. I wish you well. I know that later on after the delay with the COVID-19 experience that we had earlier in the year all of your people will come together for an apology. I know that you're very excited about the new marae in such a beautiful part of the world. Speaking to Anaru earlier today it sounds like the progress on the marae is going really well. So we can only hope as we work through this process and as we come to the next stage of the event that COVID will stay at bay and you'll be able to have a fantastic event where all your people will be able to come along and celebrate with you.So thank you for coming to Wellington and to Parliament today. Go well. I'll be keeping an eye as the bill goes through the committee stages and as you heard earlier today Tāmati Coffey will be the chair of the committee who's in charge of the progression of your bill. So thank you very much again. Thank you for your generosity in accepting this settlement and yeah thank you very much.