Tirikatene Rino: Rongowhakaata Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tirikatene Rino: Rongowhakaata Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 26 July 2012. Volume:682;Page:4032. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 Tena koe te Kaiwhakahaere o te Whare. Tena korua e nga minita koutou ra nga mema o tenei Paremata tena koutou. E aku rangatira e nga iwi o Turanga-nui-a-Kiwa Rongowhakaata Ngai Tamanuhiri Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki tena koutou. Nau mai hara mai whakatau mai ki te Paremata nei tena koutou tena koutou. A mihi atu ki aku whanaunga no Te Wai Pounamu no Kai Tahu whanui kua tae mai nei ki te kaupapa o tenei ra tena koutou. Huri noa i te Whare tena koutou tena koutou kia ora tatou katoa. 
[ 
Greetings to you Mr Speaker of the House you two ministers and indeed all you members of this Parliament salutations. I acknowledge you my leaders and people of Gisborne Rongowhakaata Ngai Tamanuhiri and Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki greetings. Welcome welcome and welcome to this Parliament salutations. To my relatives from the South Island and Kai Tahu at large who came here for the matter of the day I commend you. Greetings then to you throughout the House and to us all. 
] 
Much has been said by the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and my senior colleagues today in reference to the Rongowhakaata Claims Settlement Bill before us. It gives me great pleasure to be here to speak at this the final reading for Rongowhakaata and nga uri o Te Kooti Rikirangi. This bill is about them and it is a real honour. 
A lot of comments have been made and they are true about the atrocities that were committed against Rongowhakaata. They were heinous: Waerenga a Hika Ngatapa the detentions over at Wharekauri and the confiscations of their lands. I have spoken a lot about those actions in my earlier speeches so I want to focus this final speech on some other aspects of this bill and the settlement. 
The return of the superb piece of artwork the whare known as Te Hau ki Turanga—and I know the speakers before me have spoken a lot about the return of that beautiful beautiful whare—and the ongoing preservation of that revered house will be of great import to the descendants of the master carver Raharuhi Rukupo and the whanau and hapu of the Poverty Bay area. These people of Rongowhakaata are an ingenious people quick to seize upon opportunities advantageous to themselves and were successful international traders right up until 1865. Just the ingenuity of Rongowhakaata—the flight of the so-called rebels from Wharekauri to Turanga is a classic example; my matua here Parekura mentioned that. It is a classic example of what I speak of and the daring of those actions never ceases to amaze me. It was not much of a trick. They were imprisoned for 2 years on a faraway land over there in Wharekauri they overpowered their guards hatched a cunning plan to flag down a schooner and headed back home to Turanga-nui-a-Kiwa. 
It seems to me that the only way to get to and from the Chathams in those days was to steal a boat because Pomare did it from Wellington in 1835—he did the round trip—and Te Kooti and his crew did the return trip back from the Chathams. Those Maoris were not going to paddle their way back—it is too far—but such was the ingenuity sheer willingness to survive and drive to get back home that was demonstrated by the illustrious tupuna of Rongowhakaata who are here today. That is why I have absolute faith in the uri of Rongowhakaata as they look towards their future as the descendants of these intrepid and fearless men and women. I know the leaders of today are well equipped with the knowledge needed in today’s world. 
May I also take this opportunity to acknowledge nga uri o Te Kooti Rikirangi in this bill. Over 130 years of stigmatisation has ended for the descendants of Te Kooti. Finally families back home in Gisborne and uri around the world have an apology from the Crown acknowledging that its actions led to the deprivation of mana for the descendants of this great patriot. His proverbial saying his whakatauki “E kore he tangata o Turanga e kite i a au; e kite he whenua o Turanga i a au” has become a song for the land. It translates as “The people of Turanga will never see me again; the land of Turanga will”. It evokes a new dawn expressed as a belief that his spiritual return will occur as this terrible history is laid to rest through the process of legal settlement which we are going through now in the 21st century. The whakatauki expresses the hopes of five generations that land taken at Turanga will be recognised as having been wrongfully taken. Then the martyr Te Kooti Rikirangi—the man who was exiled as a spy without trial in 1866 without cause—may be able to return home. 
Finally I would like to encourage the history of Rongowhakaata that has been outlined in the Crown acknowledgments and the Crown apologies in this bill—that Treaty history and these texts stories and histories that are a huge contribution to our national history—I want to encourage our nation as a whole to grasp the lessons of the history that is now etched on our statute book. We do not want them to be just sitting on the shelf. I would like to encourage this Government or whoever is in Government that we make sure that our Treaty history as outlined in these Treaty bills becomes compulsory teaching in our social studies classes for our tamariki right throughout the motu. I think it is very important that this history is known and that it is educated to not only this generation but also generations to come. 
May I acknowledge my colleagues in the Maori Affairs Committee under the chair of the Hon Tau Henare and all our fellow members. I also acknowledge the work of Minister Finlayson and his officials. I am a new member to this House and I do think that in a way we are finishing off the hangi but it was actually laid down by those before us. It has the hands of that great statesman Sir Michael Cullen and other people and administrations that have been awhi-ing and tautoko-ing this bill right from the early days. It is a pleasure to be participating in this third reading and to be part of the select committee to bring this bill to its final passing. 
Finally I would like to mihi to Rongowhakaata to Stan Pardoe—I see Lewis up there—and to all of the kaumatua and kuia who have travelled all this way. It is a real honour to mihi and to speak to this bill. I know it is a very important day for you. It harks back to my own memories obviously when I was sitting up there with my whanaunga from the south when we were having the passing of our own legislation down there for Ngai Tahu. So I know how you must be feeling today: very proud. I join you and we all join you in the celebration today. We acknowledge the many many years of hard work that you have committed Stan and your team there but also we acknowledge the many ancestors who have gone before you. I am very proud to celebrate this with you today and I mihi to you all. Kia ora tatou katoa.