Sharples Pita: Mokomoko (Restoration of Character Mana and Reputation) Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sharples Pita: Mokomoko (Restoration of Character Mana and Reputation) Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 October 2012. Volume:685;Page:6187. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Minister of Maori Affairs) 
: 
 I move  
That the Mokomoko (Restoration of Character Mana and Reputation) Bill be now read a first time. 
 I nominate the Maori Affairs Committee to consider the bill. At the appropriate time I intend to move that the committee have the authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting except during oral questions during any evening on a day on which there has been a sitting of the House and outside the Wellington area and on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House despite Standing Orders 188 190(a) and 191(1)(b) and (c). 
Tuatahi me mihi atu au ki a koutou kuahara mai neiiteneirangi mo te pireneimo Te whanau a Mokomoko. Na reira tena koutou nau mai hara mai. Whakatoheawhanui katoa mai kuahara mai koutou ki te Whare Miereiteneira nau mai hara mai. Hara mai me a koutou tiniaitua kia mihia kia tangihiaratou. Na reira ko te korerokuamihia kuatangihia haere haere a tatou mate. Kia hoki ki te kaupapa whakahirahiranei tena koutou tena koutou tenatatou katoa. 
[ 
Firstly I extend salutations to you collectively who have arrived here today in respect of this bill about the Mokomoko family. And so greetings to you collectively and welcome welcome. To all of you Whakatohea broadly welcome welcome. Come hither with your many many deaths so that we can acknowledge and mourn them. Therefore let it be said that they have been acknowledged and mourned so depart our dead farewell. And so in returning to this highly important matter I extend greetings to each of you collectively and to us all. 
] 
This bill gives legal effect to the agreement to introduce legislation to give statutory recognition to the Mokomoko pardon signed by me on behalf of the Crown and Te whanau a Mokomoko Leadership Group along with many more whanau members kaumatua pakeke and rangatahi at Waiaua Marae on 28 September 2011. This bill will formally restore the character mana and reputation of their tipuna Mokomoko a rangatira of Whakatohea who was executed by the Crown in 1866 for his alleged involvement in the murder of the Rev. Carl SylviusVölkner. You may recall that a free pardon was provided to Mokomoko in 1992 for his role in this event. There are significant unresolved matters related to the form and content of the free pardon that this bill is intended to rectify. I would like to pause here to acknowledge the passing of two esteemed kaumatua and members of the whanau leadership group Matua Tuiringa Manny Mokomoko and Matua Matenga Biddle. Na reira okioki pai korua. 
[ 
And so rest in peace you two. 
] 
I would like to emphasise the significance of this bill to the descendants of Mokomoko. The bill progresses the Crown’s express undertaking to restore the character the mana and the reputation of the tipuna Mokomoko and of the whanau by providing statutory recognition of the free pardon. It represents the efforts of the leadership group to bring the issue to the Crown’s attention to enable Te whanau a Mokomoko to finally start their healing process. The bill is a sign of the Crown’s commitment to restoring the relationship with the whanau by expressing its regret that the shame and stigma carried by the whanau was not remedied by the pardon provided in 1992. 
I was humbled by the welcome on to Waiaua Marae in September last year where I met Te whanau a Mokomoko and we signed the agreement that underpins this bill. I was delighted to see large numbers of whanau present inside the whare tipuna Ruamoko to witness the signing and demonstrate their support. Members of the wider whanau had only weeks earlier attended a series of hui in Wellington and Auckland and at Waiaua where they voted in favour of this legislation being introduced. 
This bill marks an important step in restoring the relationship between Te whanau a Mokomoko and the Crown and I am pleased to be able to promote this bill today. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the time and effort that Te whanau a Mokomoko Leadership Group has put into reaching this milestone. I acknowledge the long path that the whanau have trodden and the burden the shame and the stigma that they have carried in seeking justice for their tipuna Mokomoko. 
 It is now timely for me to provide some background to the events leading to the arrest of Mokomoko and the Crown’s earlier attempt to resolve this issue. The events surrounding Mokomoko’s execution are a blot on the history of the Crown-Maori relationship. It is important to remember these events so that we may acknowledge the sacrifices of their tipuna. I want to recount the story of events leading to the execution of Mokomoko in 1866 as I understand them.  
On 1 March 1865 the Rev. Carl SylviusVölkner arrived in Opotiki despite the warnings of Te Whakatohea to stay away because of the presence of Kereopa and other Paimarire prophets. Völkner had been accused of spying and relaying information about Mataatua and the East Coast Maori seeking to assist Waikato in their fighting with the British Army. Rev. Völkner was taken from the ship he arrived on and held until his fate was decided by those present including Mokomoko. According to korero from the whanau when the decision to kill Rev. Völkner was made Mokomoko departed. He later stated that he had tried to help the missionary escape.  
In retaliation for Völkner’s killing the Government sent soldiers to Opotiki to arrest his killers. The Governor Sir George Grey proclaimed that if soldiers encountered resistance land would be confiscated. Some resistance was encountered and this was used by the Government as the basis for the raupatu the confiscation of tens of thousands of hectares of Maori land in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. Government soldiers mounted raids against Te Whakatohea and other iwi in the region as they sought out Mokomoko and his co-accused. According to some accounts many were killed kainga were destroyed and Whakatohea’s shipping fleet—the entire fleet—was burnt. The korero of the whanau is that Mokomoko’s wife Kimohia was repeatedly raped before being bayoneted to death by Government soldiers.  
Mokomoko surrendered in October 1865 to stop the persecution of his people but he maintained his innocence. In 1866 Mokomoko was tried and executed for the murder of Völkner along with his co-accused from Ngati Awa. Mokomoko was convicted on the basis that it was his rope that had been used to hang Völkner and on the basis of a supposed eye witness who claimed he was guilty. Following that conviction two of Mokomoko’s co-accused admitted their guilt; however Mokomoko did not. Mokomoko was hanged and he was buried at the old Auckland jail and courthouse. Mokomoko’s remains were later re-interred in Mt Eden Prison in the 1890s. Before he was killed he uttered the words: “E mate harakoreanaahau tena koutou Pakeha hai aha.” 
[ 
“I die an innocent man so thanks for nothing Europeans.” 
] 
In October 1989 123 years after the execution Mokomoko was finally returned home to his whanau where he was re-interred at Waiaua Marae near Opotiki.  
Seeking and receiving justice for these horrible events has not been easy for Te whanauaMokomoko. The memory of the wrongs done to their tipuna has been burnt into the consciousness of each successive generation of the whanau. This is something that the Pakeha world often does not understand—how history still lives with us and is in our actions in our minds in our ambitions and in our aspirations.  
In 1990 Te whanau a Mokomoko sought a posthumous pardon for Mokomoko and applied for the exercise of the royal prerogative of mercy. This application was initially declined on the grounds that the Crown considered there was no new evidence for the granting of a pardon on the basis that Mokomoko was wrongly convicted. The Crown later agreed that section 11 of the Te Runanga o Ngati Awa Act 1988 had the effect of pardoning Mokomoko’s co-accused. The Crown subsequently agreed that for consistency Mokomoko should be afforded the same treatment and it issued a free pardon to Mokomoko. On this basis the free pardon was issued to Te whanau a Mokomoko at WaiauaMarae on 25 June 1992.  
The free pardon should have been a constructive step in the journey of the whanau. The Crown’s intention was right but the way in which the pardon was provided compounded the grievance in the eyes of the whanau. Unlike the Ngati Awa pardon the pardon for Mokomoko did not expressly restore his character his mana or his reputation and it read: “whereas it appears that one of the incidents of section 11 of the Te Runanga o Ngati Awa Act 1988 is to pardon the three persons convicted with Mokomoko of the murder of Carl SylviusVölkner ... it appears to me just and expedient that a pardon should also be granted to Mokomoko.” 
This bill acknowledges with regret that the free pardon granted to Mokomoko in 1992 did not expressly restore the character mana and reputation of Mokomoko or his uri. It also acknowledges the Crown’s regret that it did not consult with Te whanau a Mokomoko about the wording of the free pardon. 
The grievance of te whanau in relation to the 1992 pardon was considered by the Waitangi Tribunal as part of the Te Urewera inquiry and it recommended that the terms of the free pardon be revisited by the Crown as a discrete matter and that the statutory pardon should be granted. Unfortunately the Crown is unable to reissue a free pardon once it is granted but it can provide statutory recognition for an existing pardon and that is what this bill will achieve. I just want to read this part of my speech. I am aware that the Waitangi Tribunal has also recommended that the Crown create some form of tangible tribute to mark the wrong done and demonstrate to all concerned that the blame for the raupatu did not and does not rest on Mokomoko or his descendants. I would like to assure the whanau that the tribunal’s recommendations on this point will be explored with them by the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and by me and our officials as part of the Whakatohea historical Treaty settlement negotiations. 
I would like to draw the House’s attention to some of the bill’s key features. The preamble is significant as it acknowledges the long journey the whanau has had in seeking justice and that is 146 years to date. The preamble records the background to the treatment of Mokomoko and the men of Ngati Awa in relation to the murder. The preamble also sets out the Crown’s acknowledgments that the terms of the 1992 pardon did not expressly restore the character mana and reputation of Mokomoko and his uri. This acknowledgment is repeated in clause 3 which sets out the purpose of the bill and clause 6 where the specific acknowledgment is provided of the Crown’s regret that the free pardon did not expressly restore the character mana or reputation of Mokomoko and his uri and the Crown’s regret for the ongoing shame and stigma felt by the whanau. Clause 6 also provides an acknowledgment of the Crown’s regret that it did not consult the whanau about the wording of the pardon to specifically restore the character mana and reputation of Mokomoko and the whanau. 
Clause 7 provides a statement that was lacking from the 1992 pardon. It reads: “It is declared that on and after the passing of this Act the character mana and reputation of Mokomoko are restored and the character mana and reputation of his uri are restored.” I think that is really a vital clause in the whole thing. This is a simple but significant clause but I sincerely hope this will help lift the shame and the stigma felt by the whanau and be an important step towards restoring the relationship between the Crown and Te whanau a Mokomoko. 
As the whanau indicated in the agreement we signed their journey to bring the matter to rest will be finally redressed by the Crown through their negotiations of the historical Treaty settlement. 
Finally I would like to note that this bill records the waiata composed by Mokomoko while in Mt Eden Prison. The first line of the waiata is now a whakatauaki for the whanau. The whakatauaki indicates how deeply the events surrounding the arrest trial and execution of their tipuna Mokomoko are etched on the collective memory of the whanau. The whakatauaki is as follows: “Tangohia te taura itakukaki kia waiata au itaku waiata” which has the meaning of “Have the strength to speak up and the truth will not be silenced”. 
I would like to take this opportunity to mirror the sentiments of this bill by expressing the Crown’s sincerest regret for the sense of shame and stigma that the whanau have carried in this period. I look forward to the bill being passed so that Te whanau a Mokomoko can move on to the next stage of their journey without the shame and stigma they have carried for so long. The next stage will be to address the historical Treaty claims of Te whanau a Mokomoko and explore ways of providing an appropriate tribute and also to resolve their wider grievances some of which I referred to earlier in my speech through the Treaty settlement process. For these reasons I recommend that this bill be referred to the Maori Affairs Committee without delay and be reported back to the House in due course. I commend this bill to the House.