Fox MaramaMARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā. Anei te mihi atu ki a koutou e hui nei i tēnei wā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou kua tae ā-tinana mai ā-kanohi nei ki te whakarongo ā kia kite anō i te tutukitanga o ō wawata tautohetohe pukumahi nā reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou te uri o Rangitāne o Kurahaupō o Whātonga. Nei te mihi atu ki a koutou ōku whanaunga; tēnā koutou nau mai haramai ki tō tātau Whare.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. Here is my tribute to you collectively who have gathered physically and visibly here at this time to listen and to see once again the completion of your aspirations contentions and hard work therefore greetings and salutations to you collectively congratulations and well done to you the offspring of Rangitāne Kurahaupō and Whātonga. I pay a tribute to you my relatives; congratulations welcome and come hither to our House.]In recent days I have been reminded of the importance of these things. Last week we had the Taranaki bills come and many of the people who came wore the raukura in their hair. Yesterday I was at Papawai Marae and their patu was returned from overseas from a museum in California. It was gifted to Lord Ranfurly at the time and it was a symbol that connected us to our old people and to our ancestors because it was handled touched and gifted by Mahupuku of the Māori Parliament to Lord Ranfurly. I was reminded of that and I wondered at the time: Why didn't I know about these things when I went to school?"Many of you may or may not know that I went to Queen Elizabeth College for a time in Palmerston North.Hon Members: Hey!MARAMA FOX: That is right—there are many things you fullas do not know about me. I lived in Highbury with my mum. [Interruption] Boom! See? Or "ping!"—which is like "boom!" but with treble. Anyway—ping! So I lived in Highbury and went to Queen Elizabeth College. We learnt in the education of my father's whakapapa that Elizabeth I and II were great queens. We learnt about the settling of Aotearoa—how it was "discovered" by Cook. We learnt about how Māori came to Aotearoa on a waka starving and bereft and accidentally ran into it. These are the things that I learnt in the education of my father's whakapapa.While I was there I joined my first ever kapa haka group and I started to realise that there was another knowledge that had been withheld from me through a lack of language. As I started to learn those things I realised: "Oh my goodness! These people that I'm going to school with they're my cousins." How did I know that? Well when I started to learn the mātauranga Māori of my mother's whakapapa—that came with language—I realised that that place that I grew up in called "Tee Wit" was actually "Te Whiti". I went "Oh my goodness—who knew?" and I thought "Jingos! I'm related to those fullas from Taranaki. Te Whiti o Rongomai—must be because it says 'Te Whiti'. Wow!".As I learnt more knowledge in the mātauranga Māori of my mother's whakapapa I realised: "No silly it means Te Whiti o Tūtewake who himself has whakapapa to Rangitāne but from Wairarapa." Tūtewake was known in the Māori Land Court records as a great warrior. It says: "he whakatō tāne nō Tūtewake he toa" ["a male conceived from Tūtewake a champion"]. I went: "Oh my goodness—the making of a man is in Tūtewake the warrior." And then I read the story. He was not "the man" because he was a warrior and he was not "the man" because he was a great chief—and he was—or descended from Rangitāne and actually from Kahungunu as well.Koro Kuki always said to us: "You've got a leg in each waka and you can't separate them." I went: "All right then. Ko tāua tēnā! [That's you and me!]". Anyway I learned that Te Whiti o Tūtewake reminded us of the place where Tūtewake crossed the river to save his sister Tauraharakeke who had taken herself away to die because she did not want to be married off to some koroheke. It was a thing—we have let it go. Ha ha! But he went to save her.So when I learnt the whakapapa and the mātauranga of my father's whakapapa—the English schooling—I heard that I was greedy. People said to me: "Marama why do you Māori people have to be so greedy? Why can't you just accept what you have?". When did they ask me that question? It was after Waitangi Day every year when all they saw was Māori people protesting saying: "Give us back our land."So in the education of my father's whakapapa I was told I was greedy. I had a good education but I was still told I was greedy. But in the education of my mother's whakapapa I was told that we were great—that our people were great. We were born of greatness—descended from Whātonga who traversed the land and named the places who was an explorer and discoverer who travelled across the oceans on Kurahaupō waka following the stars navigating by the phosphorus of the ocean and the tides along the Hikurangi Trench.Adrian Rurawhe: Sounds like you're talking about Samoans.MARAMA FOX: I might be; there might be some connection. Ha ha! But I digress. You know we come here today to acknowledge your history our history and the fight that has come to this point where all of a sudden when I go back to Palmerston North and the Manawatū I find that there are kura kaupapa Māori that there are kura that raised our children in the knowledge that they were great and that they have aspirations for their future. Your Treaty settlement today reminds us of that.I acknowledge those who have passed on. I had a whole speech and I have not followed it and I am supposed to shorten my time. I acknowledge Rangihararu Fitzgerald Tānenuiārangi Te Aweawe Kura Terangi Baker Ruth Harris and Kararaina Tait. Those are not all the people whom we have lost along the way but they are a reminder that in the years—the generations—that we have lost coming to this point we cannot waste more generations going forward to put to good use the benefits of the things that you have fought for and struggled for and to remind our children forevermore that they were born of greatness not greed. Nā reira e Te Iwi nei te mihi atu ki a koutou.[And so to you the tribe I acknowledge you collectively.]The last thing I just want to mention is the awa. You are going to have restored to you co-management or advice about how to restore the awa—one of the reportedly most polluted rivers in the whole of the country. What was pristine when our people lived next to it is no longer pristine. The mauri that we sought from it has been disturbed and the decision making is now in your hands to give advice. It would have been great if that advice could flow on to real decision-making power at the table so that even though you give advice it cannot be ignored as has been done around the country for years and years. We still continue to fight for that. Nō reira e aku whanaunga nei te mihi atu ki a koutou: "Tini whetū ki Te Rangi Rangitāne ki Te Whenua." Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou kia ora mai tātau katoa![And so to you my kin I salute you collectively: "Like the innumerable stars in the sky so is Rangitāne on the land." Congratulations and well done to you collectively my appreciation to us all!]"