Rurawhe Adrian: Te Atiawa Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRurawhe Adrian: Te Atiawa Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 15 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9734. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour—Te Tai Hauāuru): Tēnā koe Te Māngai o Te Whare. “Korōria hareruia ki a koe e Ihowa o ngā mano tuāuriuri whāioio ki tonu Te Rangi me Te ‘henua i te nui ō tō korōria nō reira ti’ei mauri ora!”Mai i Te Rakiura ki Te Tonga whiti atu ki Te Wharekauri-ki-Te Rāwhiti toro atu ki Taranaki ki Te Uru piki ake ki Te Reinga ki Te Tai Tokerau ngā kokonga e whā o Te Motu o Aotearoa ngā whānau i raro i te kapua pōuri kai te hīkoi i roto i te ātārangi o ngā whārua o Te Mate; mauri mai ō koutou pare kawakawa kia tangihia i te wā iti nei. Tēnei te tangi apakura e aku parepare e aku whakaruruhau e te mūrau o te tini te wenerau o te mano kua mānū ki Te Waka-ō-Aituā; kua huri kua wehe ki ngā rangi i ngā wiki i ngā mārama kua taha ake nei. Ko koutou kāre e takahi ana i te ara tukutuku o Poutama kia eke ki ngā rere o ngā rangi ki te karanga o Te Runga Rawa e moe i roto i Te Kapua-o-Te-Ringa o Ihowa o Ngā Mano. E moe i te moe te au te moe te rea te moe whakaoti atu te hāpūranga o te kauheke kia tau atu ki te rangatiratanga o Te Rangi hei whetū mārama i Te Pō. Ko te hunga nā mata kāheru i tanu anei rātou mā te ārero hei hahu ake nei. Āpiti hono tātai hono te hunga wairua ki te hunga wairua āpiti hono tātai hono tātou te hunga ora ki a tātou nō reira tēnā tātou!E tika ana kia mihi atu ki ngā uri o Awanuiārangi te tamaiti o Tamarau te heketanga a Rangi rāua ko Rongoueroa. Nō reira ki a koutou kua tae mai ki Te Whare nei Manukōrihi Ngāti Rāhira Ngāti Tāwhirikura Ngāti Tūparikino Ngāti Te Whiti Pōtaurawā Pukerangiora me Puketapu hoki nō reira Te Atiawa nau mai haere mai whakatau mai rā ā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou!E tika hoki kia tautoko i ngā kupu o Te Minita te tuku reo poroporoaki ki a Wikitōria King. Kai te maumahara tonu au i te wā ko au nei te heamana o Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Apa. No’o tahi au ki te ta’a o Wikitōria kia w’iriw’iri i ngā kōrero e pā ana ki ngā take i mua i ō rāua iwi. Nō reira e tika ana kia tuku atu te reo mi’i poroporoaki ki a ia mō ōna mahi ka mahia mai e a ia i te wā e ora ana a ia. Kai te mi‘i ‘oki au ki te matua nei ki a Pita Moeahu mō āna ma’i ki te ta’a o Wikitōria hei whai huarahi tika mō tēnei ā’uatanga te w’akatau kerēme mō Te Atiawa. Nō reira e te matua tēnei ahau e tuku mi’i atu ki a koe.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. “Glory honour and hallelujah to you Jehovah Lord of the many hosts. Heaven and earth are filled with the greatness of your glory so behold the breath of life!”From the north and down to the south over to the Chatham Islands in the east extending to Taranaki in the west and reaching up to Te Reinga in Northland are the four corners of New Zealand. To all families who are under the mantle of grief and walking in the shadows of the valley of the void bring forth your deceased so that we may mourn them in this short time we have. I mourn you my protectors havens my awesome and critics desired and loved by the many thousands who are now upon the spiritual canoe who passed away and are heading heavenwards in recent days weeks and months. You will no longer ascend the path of Poutama but head heavenwards to the call of the Almighty above. Sleep in the cusp of the hands of Jehovah of the many thousands. Sleep the enduring and lasting until the birth of the generation to come. Enter into the kingdom of heaven to become a gleaming star in thevoid. They are the deceased who were buried with the chaplet of leaves and through our tributes we will recall and resurrect them. The bonds are reunited; let the dead be with the dead and the living with the living; therefore salutations to us collectively.It is only right that the descendants of Awanuiārangi the child of Tamarau descendant of Rangi and Rongoueroa are acknowledged. Therefore to all of you who have arrived here in this House—Manukōrihi Ngāti Rāhira Ngāti Tāwhirikura Ngāti Tūparikino of Ngāti Te Whiti of Pōtaurawa Pukerangiora and Puketapu as well—welcome Te Atiawa. Welcome come hither and congratulations to you collectively.It is only proper that I endorse the farewell tribute by the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations to Victoria King. I still recall the time when I was the chairman of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Apa and used to sit next to Victoria when negotiating related issues between them. Therefore it is appropriate that I pay a tribute to her as well for all the work she did during her lifetime. I want to also acknowledge my senior kin PeterMoeahu for his work with Victoria in pursuing an appropriate way of settling this type of claim for Te Atiawa. And so my elder kin I truly acknowledge you.]I have read a number of historical accounts and very few go to the length and depth of the breaches and the wrongdoing of both Crown and Crown agents as the ones that are from Taranaki. In particular for this piece of legislation the historical account for Te Atiawa can be quite depressing actually. The totality of what was inflicted upon the people of Taranaki and in this instance Te Atiawa bears no place in New Zealand. It should never have happened. The fact that this process takes place and we are able to acknowledge those things that were done wrong—I think I will leave it to quote from the Waitangi Tribunal.Here are some of the things that that report says. “They could be the largest”—talking in terms of the claims and I think they are turning out to be the largest—“in the country. There may be no others where as many Treaty breaches had equivalent force and effect over a comparable time. … We see the claims as standing on two major foundations land deprivation and disempowerment with the latter being the main. By ‘disempowerment’ we mean the denigration and destruction of Maori autonomy or self-government. … This report has introduced the historical claims of the Taranaki hapu. It has shown the need for a settlement … Generous reparation policies are needed to remove the prejudice to Maori to restore the honour of the Government to ensure cultural survival and to re-establish effective interaction between the Treaty partners.”Those are very powerful words. They are powerful and they identify in four short sentences the extent to which Te Atiawa have suffered. It is as I have said on a number of occasions on settlement bills a gift to this country that Te Atiawa have decided to settle their claims. The magnitude of what was done to them cannot be over-emphasised and the fact that they are performing an act of generosity to this country and to Taranaki is a credit to them and identifies the willingness to move into a development phase for the betterment of their future generations. That ought to be applauded. It ought to be recognised and I think that within the settlement package which is substantial—and so it should be; it should be substantial—as the Tribunal has pointed out generous reparation policies are needed to remove the prejudice against Māori.Unfortunately some of that prejudice still exists. We know of the recent occurrence in Waitara of the naming of two streets where the majority of those streets are named after soldiers who participated in the first part of the Taranaki Wars. This is something that needs to be addressed. One of the mechanisms in this settlement is a letter of introduction believe it or not to the New Plymouth District Council. They should not need a letter of introduction but the fact of the matter is that that relationship still needs some work on it. I hope that this settlement and this process that we are beginning through Parliament are the first step in ensuring a better relationship between not only the district council and Te Atiawa but also the community of Waitara of New Plymouth and of all these places within Te Atiawa rohe.Nō reira ‘e tino ‘ōnore tēnei kia tū ake i roto i Te Whare o ngā Raiona ki te tuku atu taku nei kōrero hei tautoko i te pānuitanga tuata’i o tēnei pire nō reira ki a Te Atiawa tēnei te mi’i anō ki a koutou otirā ki Te W’are nei tēnā tātou katoa.[Therefore this is indeed an honour for me to stand in this House of the Lions to deliver my speech in support of the first reading of this bill and so I once again salute you Te Atiawa but at the same time this House; my appreciation to us all.]