Fox Marama: Te Kawerau ā Maki Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFox Marama: Te Kawerau ā Maki Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 04 November 2014. Volume:694;Page:564. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party):Ā tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā. Karanga mai ko Te Kawerau ā Maki ko Te Wao Nui-ā-Tiriwā mai Te Korekore ki ngā Tai-ā-Rakataura ko Rangihina ko Whangaparāoa ko Mahurangi nā Maki te mana me te rangatiratanga! Tēnā koutou i ngā āhuatanga o te wā iri te rau kawakawa iri i te whare aituā he piki he raukura he kōtore huia. Ka whaitia ka whaitia ka ngaro ki Paerau ka ngaro whakaoti atu. Āpiti hono tātai hono ko te hunga mate ki te hunga mate āpiti hono tātai hono ko tātou te hunga ora te kanohi kitea ki a tātou anō tēnā koutou.[Thank you Mr Speaker. Behold Te Kawerau ā Maki and Te Wao Nui-ā-Tiriwā call from the Realm of Potential Being to the tides of Rakataura as indeed do Rangihina Whangaparāoa and Mahurangi. Maki has the power and autonomy! Greetings to you collectively with regard to the circumstances of the time. Adorning the house of death are macropiper excelsium leaves as do the feathers plumes and tail feathers of the huia in our pursuit of a loved one passed and lost to the Meeting Place of the Dead forever. The lines are drawn let the dead be united unto themselves and us the living the seen faces interact with ourselves as well I acknowledge you collectively.]As we gather here this morning we grieve the passing of a son of Te Kawerau ā Maki Eru Thompson. Four years ago on 18 February 2010 it was Eru Thompson who was pictured in a symbolic hongi with Sir Doug Graham the then Crown negotiator for the agreement in principle. It is so fitting that as this significant claim reaches its first reading we acknowledge the incredible efforts and sacrifices made by all those who have carried this claim. After more than 150 years of annihilation from your whenua and a negotiations process stretching back nearly 7 years this is a very significant day for the descendants of Tāwhia-ki-te-Rangi a day signed with sadness a day touched with meaning.Te Kawerau ā Maki originally lodged claims with the Waitangi Tribunal nearly 30 years ago but the history dates back over centuries. We welcome to the House today Te Kawerau ā Maki the descendants of the famous chief Maki and his wife Rotu who in the early 17th century migrated with their whānau from Kāwhia to what is now the Tāmaki-makau-rau region. In time the children of Maki and his followers dispersed throughout the southern Kaipara Te Whenua roa ō Kahu Hikurangi Whangaparāoa Mahurangi Matakanakana Pakiri Aotea and Te Hauturu-o-Toi. Together they are known today as Te Kawerau confederation. Nau mai haere mai ki te Whare Pāremata.Te Kawerau ā Maki held their land and resources under collective tribal custodianship. Their rangatira exercised authority over their tribal domain and the surrounding sea. They enjoyed a highly mobile lifestyle based on a cycle of seasonal resource gathering. With intermarriage they soon had interests throughout the wider area settled by Te Kawerau confederation. However—and this is where our story becomes laden with heaviness—intertribal warfare and the arrival of Europeans had a devastating toll on the tribe especially during the 19th century when numbers dwindled. European contact in the late 18th and early 19th centuries brought the tragedy of rewharewha.In 1825 Te Kawerau ā Maki then suffered major losses in battles and with other groups were forced to exile to the Waikato. In 1835 they returned to Waitakere in the south Kaipara under the protection of Tainui ariki Te Wherowhero. By 1840 Te Kawerau ā Maki although reduced in numbers like other tribes of the region were resident on their ancestral land. They continued to exercise kaitiakitanga over the vast natural resources and focused on the Waitakere coastline between Pīhā and Muriwai. At the time Te Kawerau ā Maki had little direct contact with the Crown. However pre-Treaty land transactions between other iwi and early European settlers saw the annihilation of Te Kawerau ā Maki lands.From 1841 the Land Claims Commission investigated the pre-Treaty transactions. However when resolving them the Crown failed to consider Te Kawerau ā Maki’s interests. The Crown granted settlers lands and retained a surplus of land for itself. In 1841 the Crown purchased an extensive area called Mahurangi and Ōmaha. This area included land that Te Kawerau ā Maki held shared interests in but true to form Te Kawerau ā Maki was not consulted about the sale. Nor did the Crown provide adequate compensation in reserves when it later learned of Te Kawerau ā Maki’s interests in the area.Between 1844 and 1845 the Crown waived its right of pre-emption allowing private individuals to negotiate directly with Māori. However the Crown did not apply the regulations it had established to protect Māori. Through these transactions Te Kawerau ā Maki lost land in west Auckland and around the upper Waitematā Harbour. The Crown took with one hand and gave with another providing land for settlers and gaining control of the local rich timber sources.In 1853 and 1854 the Crown turned its attention to acquisition of 100000 acres in the Waitakere Ranges deep in the rohe of Te Kawerau ā Maki. That is right—100000 acres. These purchases included the Hikurangi block for £1100. The heavily forested block was estimated to include 12000 acres. It was not surveyed at the time. It was later found to include 54141 acres. Again the deed was not signed by any leading Te Kawerau ā Maki rangatira. No reserves were set aside for Te Kawerau ā Maki in the large Hikurangi block. Te Kawerau ā Maki received £50 as a final payment for Hikurangi and two neighbouring blocks.From the mid-1860s the individualisation of title made Te Kawerau ā Maki lands including their reserve lands more susceptible to partition fragmentation and alienation. This process continued throughout the 20th century for the very limited areas of the land that Te Kawerau ā Maki had left. Between 1920 and 1951 the Crown acquired the remaining Te Kawerau ā Maki interests in Kōpironui and Puketapu blocks in south Kaipara. The Crown did this by compulsory purchases and Public Works Act takings for sand dune reclamation despite Te Kawerau ā Maki protest.The Crown’s actions and omissions have meant that today Te Kawerau ā Maki is virtually landless with no marae or urupā of its own as has been previously said. The Crown’s failure to ensure Te Kawerau ā Maki was left with sufficient land for its present and future needs has completely and utterly stalled the tribe’s social economic and cultural development. Furthermore this failure has undermined the ability of Te Kawerau ā Maki to protect and manage its taonga and wāhi tapu and to maintain spiritual connections to the lands. Today the Crown acknowledges that for too long it failed to appropriately respond to Te Kawerau ā Maki claims for redress and justice for its breaches of the Treaty and its subsequent failure to protect the lands reserved for iwi. Today we finally begin to lift the burden of grievance for Te Kawerau ā Maki—a day that is long overdue.As we start to make those next tentative steps forward the Māori Party stands to acknowledge the trustees of the Te Kawerau Iwi Tribal Authority. You have acted so diligently and unrelentingly on behalf of your tūpuna and your present descendants and you have secured a future for generations of Te Kawerau ā Maki yet to come. We take this moment to acknowledge you: George Winikere Taua Te Wārena Taua Miriama Tamariki Hāmuera Taua and Ngārama Walker. Anō nā koutou i whakapau werawera i whakapau kaha ka tuohu te māhunga ki mua i tō koutou aroaro. [Once again and because you collectively expended sweat and energy I bow my head before you.]Finally I want to leave the last word to your own Eru Thompson. On that auspicious day of the signing in 2010 Eru summed up the importance of the settlement when he said: “It’s taken almost 30 years for the Government to admit that my people are the tribe of the region. That is just a step leading up to the completion of the claim. It was never going to be exactly what we wanted. The issue is now about moving forward and developing a future for our grandchildren.” Moe mai rā Eru. Your work to this point is done. Ka waiho anō te toenga mahi ki a mātou te hunga ora te hunga tūtuki i ō wawata. Nō reira e te whānau Te Kawerau ā Maki tēnā koutou kai raro.[What remains to be done is for us the living the ones who are to fulfil your aspirations to address once again. And so I salute you the family of Te Kawerau ā Maki and resume my seat.]