Okeroa Mahara: Ngati Awa Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Okeroa Mahara: Ngati Awa Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:624;Page:19333] 
MAHARA OKEROA (Labour—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 Before I start I crave your indulgence. I understand that under the Standing Orders the use of “you” relates to speaking directly to the Chair but we do have a customary practice of acknowledging the people; otherwise if we speak with our back to them they are reduced to the mere presence of kehua [spirits] which they are not. Thank you. 
A tenaanotatau te iti me te rahi me te katoa. Koutou e kopekopeano mai kai roto itenei Whare iraroi te tahukorero mai raanoirungai te tikanga e whakapuaki mai i te taha a ratau me te taha o tataunei. No reira tena koutou. 
[ 
And greetings once again to us all and everyone else in our various roles. Regardless of our Standing Orders about addressing each other I seek your indulgence to address the people directly. Greetings 
.]  
I do not want to make you hoha because we did have a go at doing that yesterday but I do want to look at some of the ingredients that relate to you being here. Firstly I think we need to pay proper homage to those people who are not here. A 
rataurakuatimataai o rataunapikitangairungainga taumata ki te matotoru me te nuinga o tataunei. 
 [ 
A vast number and a majority of us have begun the climb to the tops. 
] 
So I think we need to do that in a way that remembers their contribution—not just to state that they are not here but to say also that they probably like other members of other iwis who have been before us will celebrate the whakatutukitanga o tatauneihiahiatanga kei roto i te Whare Paremata ahakoangakorerowhakapuaki mai e etehi o nga mema ki te whakahe mai i o koutou neiwhakaaro kei roto i te pirenei. 
[An interpretation in English was given to the House.] 
[ 
and to express what we want ourselves in Parliament regardless of the views expressed by some members who oppose your thoughts in this bill. 
] 
So to all the people who were originally part of the Ngati Awa whanui [ 
greater Ngati Awa 
] who are not here a mihi atu. [ 
I acknowledge you. 
] We all have those pou tangata pouwahine [ 
mighty men and women 
] who over time are no longer with us and we need to pay that respect because they constituted the generation before you all who sit here and they probably in their own way burnt the most kei roto o rataunei wairua. [ 
of what was inside of them spiritually.] 
 I now want to talk about the statements about this journey that is taking place. Kei roto i te reo Maori kuatimatangahikoitangairungai te ara e kore e mutu. 
[ 
To say it in Maori the walk upon the road that has no ending has started. 
] 
This is not about an ending. It is not even about a beginning I suppose in terms of te ao hou [ 
the modern world 
] it is about the continuation of the aspirations of your people with respect to what is happening today. 
I do also seeing I am a keen student of history take issue with my honourable colleague Parekura Horomia. He mentioned that we are celebrating St Patrick’s day and said that St Patrick himself was an Irish eponymous ancestor. Well he was not. He was actually a Scotsman. I am very very aware of who the eponymous ancestor of Ngati Awa is however as there is a certain relationship between our ancestor Awanuiaorangi. 
So having set that aside I want to address another dimension which I do not think has been addressed with any fullness so far. Given everything that has happened both in the past and in the present is it nothing less than a minor miracle that Ngati Awa representatives are here at all. Because when we talk about the treaty partnership that in itself on one level tends to disguise a whole range of other essential qualities that are missing. Let me first of all visit the word “trust”. It is an extraordinarily difficult challenge for the tribe hapu and whanau who suffered a huge consequence of a historical misdeed or breach to then be able to and be expected to demonstrate trust in the Crown. I find that to be as a claimant an almost insurmountable hurdle. Because in order to establish that trust between two at some times adversarial groups there must be some demonstration of goodwill. So to arrive at the stage where we are now kei te noho koutou kei konei [ 
you are here 
] would have required the group that was appointed as negotiators to get above and beyond that which caused the haehaetanga o te whatumana [ 
feelings to be divided 
] 
in order to engage in a process that could be seen to be extraordinarily difficult and at times overwhelming. So from that point of view I congratulate the representatives on being able to get to a stage where in spite of the piki me ngaheke [ 
ups and downs 
] 
they can at last engage with regard to the resolution of a historical grievance. 
I listened with some intent to a speaker who said we have some difficulty with the expanding number of iwi and hapu. There were different numbers when he initially had charge of the process and I am thankful it is not current any more. Now the state of that knowledge is not actually our fault because we are very sure about how many hapu we have how many iwi we have and how many waka we have which is not just seven. So that becomes part of an accepted mythology if one likes about the reality that other people paint for us. So this journey highlights that it is not about conforming to the edict “go forth and multiply” but rather that some credence should be paid to the fact that we do have what we say we do have. In that regard the fact that we have packets of settlements that apply to Ngati Awa kia ora koutou [ 
well done 
] whether it is above the sea below the sea or on the land—it is just a little part of the original estate that was confiscated. 
I wish Ngati Awa well. I totally support the idea that you are going to be the navigators of your own destiny unfettered and untrammelled. As I have found out in my experience there is nothing like being totally responsible to Maori beneficiaries. It is not by any means of the imagination an enviable task. So those people who find themselves at the helm kei te kei o te waka [ 
at the helm of the canoe 
] the responsibility that is inherent in that is absolutely awesome and absolutely demanding and sometimes one thinks: “Is it worthwhile doing?”. So Ngati Awa na koutou katoa tena koutou. [ 
it is all yours congratulations. 
] 
I shall leave the closing address from our party to the eloquence of John Tamihere. I wish Ngati Awa well in their ongoing journey. Kia ora mai tatau katoa. 
[ 
Good health to all of us 
. 
]