Horomia Parekura: Waitaha Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Horomia Parekura: Waitaha Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 19 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5451. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA (Labour—Ikaroa-Rawhiti) 
: 
 Mr Speaker tena koe. E mihi kau ana ki a ratou e kore i konei nga mea pakeke e rere atu pera i a Jacqui Te Kani ratou ma e tangi hoki te ngakau mo ratou. No reira tena koe mo te rangi nui tenei mo nga tangata i tae tahi ake ki konei ki te manaaki atu i nga kereme nei. No reira tena tatou. E Tame ki a koutou katoa me nga uri o te kainga e mihi kau ana. Tena koutou mo to koutou kaha ki te tae ake ki konei. 
Tautokotia atu nga korero a te wahine rangatira a Tariana mo te ahua o to kereme. Tena koe mo to kaha. Mai i te timata e tu atu to koutou hoa whanaunga a Te Ariki ma i to taha e whai atu mo to kereme i te wa nei e haere tahi atu koutou engari e tae ake koutou i roto i to koutou ake mana. Nga uri o Hakaraia e mihi kau ana ki a koutou. Nga mea pakeke e kore i konei e kare e taea i te mau whatu o te ahua o te kereme nei e mihi kau ana. No reira i a koutou e Tame me to hoa rangatira mo to kaha i te poipoi atu te nui o to iwi mo te tae penei tonu e mihi kau ana. Kia ora koutou. 
Na te mea i roto i a koe tautokotia atu nga korero o te whaea a Tariana mo te ahua o nga uri o Hakaraia. Mai i te timata o te tae o nga hoia o te kawanatanga nga tangata penei tatou he Minita e mahi porotehe atu ki a ratou. E tuku atu ratou i to ratou whakaaro mo te wehewehe whakaaro me te porangi noa iho o Hakaraia. Ahakoa e mohio atu ratou o te hau kainga e kare hoki to ratou tangata pera tonu e whai atu e mahi atu te mahi kino i tera tangata. Tera ano wetahi o nga tino pou i roto i te kereme nei hei whakatikatika atu i a ratou hei pirangi atu i nga uri o Hakaraia o Waitaha hei whakatikatika na te mea e kite atu koe i te tarai ki te nui o ratou. Kare e orite ki wetahi i Te Tai Rawhiti. He iwi humaria i kite atu i roto i te kanohi o Tame e whai atu. Ahakoa nga piki nga heke o te taumaha e tuku atu te kawanatanga ki a ratou he tino kereme ke tenei mo te whakatikatika. No reira e mihi kau ana ki a ratou mo to ratou kaha. Mai i to ratou tae atu to ratou tu o te mana o Waitaha o te waka o  
Te Arawa 
 e whai atu ratou ia tau ia tau hei whakatika atu i te taumaha e tuku atu te kawanatanga ki a ratou. 
E mihi kau ana ki te iwi o Ngati Makino mai i te timata o te kereme nei e haere tahi atu ratou tata ana ki to ratou whanaunga. Engari na to ratou haere i runga i te huarahi e whakaaro atu e haere pera tonu a Ngati Makino e haere pera tonu a Waitaha. Tera ano te mea i roto i a ratou pera i a Rahera Ohio a Areta Gray a Shane Ashby Mike Nahu me wetahi o ratou. Te mate o te mau ingoa e waiho atu wetahi i waho ra mo ratou katoa e kore i konei nga pakeke e timata atu i tenei kereme. No reira ki a tatou e whai kaha hei oti pai tenei tena tatou. 
[ 
Thank you Mr Speaker. I acknowledge those indeed who are no longer with us; the elder ones who have passed on like Jacqui Te Kani and them. I really grieve for them. Thank you therefore for this great day and for the many people who have arrived here together to support these claims. Well done therefore to us. To you Tame and all the kinfolk from back home I truly applaud you collectively and acknowledge your efforts to get here. Thank you for your efforts to make it here.  
I endorse the sentiments by the Hon Tariana in respect of the nature of the claim. I commend the efforts of the honourable member. At the beginning your friend and relative Te Ariki and them worked at your side on your claim and at this stage you are all still progressing your claim along but you have arrived here under your own steam. I applaud you the kinfolk of Hakaraia. As for the elder ones who are no longer here and able to witness the form of this claim I salute you all. Therefore to you Tame and your good wife in terms of your efforts to nurture the majority of your people along to reach this point in the condition they are in I doff my hat to you both. Thank you collectively.  
Because of your inner belief you endorsed the sentiments expressed by Auntie Tariana about the relatives of Hakaraia and their circumstances. From the very first time that Government troops arrived as well as people whom we thought were Ministers they protested let them know what was on their minds had divisive thoughts and thought Hakaraia was crazy. As a follow-up the ones back home thought their man was not like that at all or was a person with evil intent. There were other pillars of real substance in this claim who kept the process on track and who wanted Hakaraia’s kin and those of Waitaha involved where amendments were needed because of their numbers. They were quite unlike some on the East Coast. They are affable by nature and you can see it in Tame’s face. Despite the ups and downs of the burden that the Government will place upon them this is a gem of a claim to amend. And so I truly acknowledge them on their efforts from the outset; their stance in respect of the autonomy of Waitaha and the  
Te Arawa 
 canoe. They were involved in the amendments to the burden placed upon them by the Government and followed this up each year.  
I truly acknowledge the people of Ngati Makino. From the very outset of this claim they worked closely with their kin. And so when they took their campaign on the road Ngati Makino and Waitaha followed suit. The ones involved from within them were pillars like Rahera Ohio Areta Gray Shane Ashby Mike Nahu and others. The problem when names are mentioned is that some grown-ups who started this claim process but are no longer here are left out because one cannot recall them. But I do include them in this acknowledgment. And so to us who worked hard to complete this process I salute you. 
] 
Waitaha descend from the waka  
Te Arawa 
. Their area of interest extends from Waimapu to Mauao along the coastline to Maketu and inland to Otanewainuku—wainuku. They are great people in relation to the water that is important to them there. E mihi atu i a ratou mo to ratou whai atu mo te ora o nga puna i reira mai ra no. 
[ 
I acknowledge them on their efforts to follow it up and on keeping the springs over there in good condition from the outset. 
] 
Waitaha and neighbouring Ngati Makino commenced joint negotiations with the Crown in early 2008. Waitaha and Ngati Makino signed agreements in principle in 2008. Over the course of negotiation to deed of settlement Waitaha Ngati Makino and the Crown agreed to separate negotiations. That needs to be understood as we go through the day. 
There have been key figures in the negotiations Tame and Punohu McCausland and other people who are not here now are people who have tramped the roads from there to here around their rohe to try to ensure that people understood—which is the case in my mind having listened to them—that one of their principal concerns was the Crown’s bastardisation of the entity of Hakaraia and his rangatiratanga and how the Crown craftily engendered that he was a rebel he was no good and he was worthless. It is important that we do remind ourselves about that. I want to commend the Minister for the effort that he has put into correcting that and to thank him for that like I always do because he does put the effort in. 
An initial deed of settlement was ratified by members of Waitaha and signed in September 2011. The Waitaha claims relate to the Crown acquisition of the Te Puke and Otawa-Waitaha 1 Blocks and failure to provide adequate reserves. This is one of the alarming things in the Waitaha claim: that the reserves were created with no replacement and not more so than in general but it was quite blatantly ensuring that the replacement reserves were not marked; nor were Waitaha given basic governance or recognition that the reserves were taken from them. It was more than a confiscation; it was an obliteration of their rangatiratanga and their right to those reserves. That the Crown is putting that right is certainly an effort that needs to be recognised. 
Native land laws and the operation of the Native Land Court—in the sense of the Native Land court history as there are always tests with the deeds of the agents of the Crown—the Waitaha land files will tell you that Waitaha were treated in some of the worst fashion more so than most of those who are here claiming settlements today. So that needs to be recognised and understood. This is not a claim that is just coming up because of now or because the Crown has enacted through the Treaty settlement process an opportunity to correct things. It is about putting right that thing that was really wrong and that has not been recognised or understood by Pakehas or a majority of Maori around this country about what was done to them. 
Crown purchasing methods and the failure to ensure Waitaha received sufficient land for their future needs: apart from forced sell-offs there were also co-management plans that were sort of set up but at the time the main partner the owner was removed from it. As to the treatment of the Waitaha during the Tauranga bush campaign and the impact of the Tauranga confiscation including the treatment of the Waitaha chief Hakaraia the Tauranga bush campaign was one of the most dastardly outrageous set-tos on the tangata whenua and indigenous people in this land and that happened in Waitaha. That it was so couched and the way that Waitaha managed their way out of it is all to their due credit. The Crown’s actions actually left Waitaha landless and as part of the settlement package as Minister Turia mentioned earlier on there are a whole lot of issues in there. But the cultural redress and telling the story of Hakaraia is one of the base points in this settlement. There are a whole lot of points of cultural redress but there is the restoration of the Hei Marae and if you have been there it used to look like an antiquated old place but you can see the essence of the strength of the people in it because they have maintained it and kept it true to the shape and form as it was when it was first built. 
I would like to congratulate the Waitaha negotiators and the trustees of Te Kapu o Waitaha on their patience in getting to this point. The protocols and letters of introduction to facilitate and strengthen relationships between Waitaha and the Crown and local government are important. Again Minister Finlayson those Government agencies—you watch them and make sure that they come together seriously to help these people. Of course there is more than giving them some money and there is more than giving them land or some rights—there is more than all of that. It is about correcting one of the real misdemeanours in the settlement process by the colonisers in this country. 
 People shudder when we suggest it but if we do not talk about it in this House so that it is recorded and recognised that we are trying to put some of those dastardly deeds right—and again I commend the Minister and the Crown for doing that—then the story of Hakaraia will never be really readily accepted. We can inscribe it in history. We can do all of those things but today is a great day in the sense of getting to where they need to get to and I want to commend the people of Waitaha in relation to being here today to see the beginning of the end of this claim. Kia ora tatou.