Tirikatene Rino: Tūhoe Claims Settlement Bill Te Urewera Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Tūhoe Claims Settlement Bill Te Urewera Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 23 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19477. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga):Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Ā kāti tīhei-wā mauri ora ki te whai ao ki te ao mārama. E ngā mana e ngā hapū o Ngāi Tūhoe tēnā koutou. Haere mai nunui mā teitei mā nau mai haere mai ki te Whare Pāremata e takatū nei. Nō koutou tēnei rā he rā whakahirahira tēnei nō reira tēnā koutou e ngā rangatira. Huri rauna i tō tātou Whare tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. And so behold the breath of life to the emerging world and to the world of enlightenment. To the authorities and subtribes of Ngāi Tūhoe acknowledgments to you collectively. Welcome the might of the large and lofty welcome welcome to the House of Parliament waiting here in readiness. This day of magnificence is your day and therefore congratulations to you the esteemed. To you collectively and to us all throughout our House congratulations acknowledgments and well done.]I am delighted to be speaking at the final reading of these two bills the Tūhoe Claims Settlement Bill and the Te Urewera Bill on this historic day. Ngāi Tūhoe as an iwi never signed the founding document of our nation the Treaty of Waitangi yet Tūhoe has certainly suffered most horrendously at the hands of the Crown. Their contribution to the post-colonial history of our country is immense.Tūhoe supported the prophet hero Te Kooti in the Ringatū religion. They fought in the land wars at Rangiriri and Pukehina and Te Ranga events that have recently been commemorated. The unreasonable unwarranted and unjustified treatment meted out by the police to Tūhoe in—take your pick—1916 and repeated in 2007 are some of the darkest days of our country’s history. Yet there is so much more that ordinary everyday Kiwis do not know about this proud tribe known to us as the “children of the mist”.In the poetry of Māori oratory we know the people of Tūhoe to be the wasters of food treasures and men. By that we mean that such were their resources that they could afford to be generous with their food and in the gifting of their treasured taonga. When it came to warfare it did not matter how many Tūhoe were dispatched to beyond the veil there were plenty more Tūhoe prepared to step forward to take the place of those who had fallen. Tūhoe moumou kai moumou taonga moumou tangata ki te pō.[Wasters of food wasters of treasures and wasters of people to the void.]It has taken decades to get to where Tūhoe are today. They are an iwi who are well prepared for the future. Their new tribal headquarters at Tāneatua is proof of that preparedness. They have used their existing settlements around the fisheries and the like to obvious great effect and they seem more than ready to receive the Crown’s apology which the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations will be delivering next month. They are more than prepared for the recompense for the historical wrongs and to receive that apology from the Crown.I would like to acknowledge at this time those whānau and hapū who felt that the Treaty negotiations process did not fit their own truths so some withdrew their support from this claims settlement bill. Can I say to them that their actions are not new. In every claims settlement bill that has ever been negotiated and settled there has never been a 100 percent acceptance by iwi. That stand is in and of itself a perfectly legitimate point of view to hold and one that must be accepted by all the parties involved.Settlement claims may be approved by a tribal majority but they are never unanimous. Sometimes there is no way to move forward for those whānau and hapū who have deeply felt mamae and hurt and sometimes those dissenters can be made to feel ostracised from the rest of their kin. But can I say to them that time is their ally and hopefully time will heal the wounds. The Treaty negotiations are invariably there as a legacy that all of their whānau and hapū can enjoy. Sometimes it is just not possible to pigeonhole every whānau every mamae and every grievance into a settlement. The stories of Ngāti Haka Patuheuheu and their grievance of Te Houhi and Waiōhau Block is sadly one of these examples.Concerns were raised regarding the hapū and iwi Te Upokorehe and also certain situations surrounding ownership of Waikaremoana and neighbouring iwi like Ngāti Ruapani. Can I say to those whanau concerned that every member of the Māori Affairs Committee has taken into account every piece of information that has been provided to come up with the best possible outcome. My hope is that those hapū and whānau who have maybe withdrawn from the processes will at some stage re-enter the fold and enjoy the benefits that have been provided for all of the iwi. I am also reassured by the comments from the Minister that he will make provision for other interests.It is my observation much like my whanaunga Tau that one can identify a Tūhoe by the way they stand. There is something in their stance that suggests a tree—maybe a kauri. There is something in the way they stand that suggests a permanence that they are going nowhere too soon. Maybe that is part of their mystique that Tau referred to: the staunchness and pride with which they stick to their guns their personality sometimes as attractable as their vast forest mother of Te Urewera.Who of us here and around the country will ever forget the day the Crown and the Waitangi Tribunal turned up at Tauārau Marae having been transported there on horse and dray? The welcome of Tūhoe in full regalia was a sight to behold as were the burning wrecks that littered the roadside and mirrored Tūhoe’s sense of grievance over the scorched earth policies of the Crown in former times. The shooting of the flag by Tame Iti was the ultimate insult to those Crown representatives who bravely turned up that day. Hoi anō e Te Mana Whakahaere o Te Whare Nui. Those days of protest evidenced in negotiations have passed. Today’s third reading and subsequent period between now and when the apology will be given next month to Tūhoe from the Minister will be one of full reflection and celebration.And so in finishing I would like to acknowledge the other significant aspect to be enacted in this third reading of the Te Urewera Bill. To Tūhoe their association with the forests rivers and mountains of Te Urewera defines who they are as a people. Tūhoe are the children of the mist maiden Hinepūkohurangi. Their home is the mist-covered hills mountains and valleys of Te Urewera. But the Crown could never acknowledge or grant outright ownership to Tūhoe. Too much water has gone under our historical post-colonial bridge for the Government to cede Te Urewera totally. And so this Te Urewera Bill is a clear and innovative way to recognise Tūhoe’s link to Te Urewera for the whole of the country. Te Urewera will become its own entity in law as though it were a living and breathing thing and of course to the minds of Tūhoe that is exactly what it is. So this legislation serves as a way for Pākehā New Zealanders to better understand Tūhoe’s association with those forests rivers and mountains mentioned in the Treaty and the taonga that is Te Urewera.Earlier I mentioned the largesse and magnaminity of Tūhoe in the gifting of their treasured belongings maumau taonga. I can think of no other gesture that best represents those words than this Te Urewera Bill that will become an Act of Parliament. I commend the negotiating parties and the Minister and all those who have been involved in bringing these settlements to this point. I can only wish on behalf of all of the whanau of Te Wai Pounamu and Te Tai Tonga all the very best for the future to Ngāi Tūhoe. Nō reira tēna koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.