Brownlee Gerry; Kapa-Kingi MariamenoMAIDEN STATEMENTSSPEAKER: I call Mariameno Kapa-Kingi to make her maiden speech.MARIAMENO KAPA-KINGI (Te Pāti Māori—Te Tai Tokerau): Te rangi e tū nei te papa e hora nei tihei mauri ora ki te whei ao ki te ao mārama. E tangi nei ki te rahi o te pō rātou ki a rātou. Ko tātou tēnei ki te kaupapa o te ora. Kei aku rangatira o Te Ātiawa o Taranaki Hānui e pupuri nei i te mana o te henua tēnā koutou. Huri noa tēnā tātou e te hakaminenga e tau nei. [The sky that stands here the land that lies here the breath of life to the emerging world to the world of light. I grieve for the many of the night they who congregate together. We are those of the living.To my noble leaders of Te Ātiawa of Taranaki Hānui who hold the mana of the land greetings. All around (the House) greetings to the assembly gathered here.]Mr Speaker tēnā koe. Over 180 years ago my tūpuna Te Māhia Tupe Ururoa and Hongi signed He 'Hakaputanga. Wiki Taitimu and Parāone Ngāruhe furthered this legacy in signing Te Tiriti a legacy of mana tuku iho. Here I stand part of the 54th iteration of a New Zealand Government as a mokopuna of Eparaima Kapa member of the 11th New Zealand Government as well as Māori Parliament over 130 years ago. He advocated for the rights of women and here I am as the first wahine to take the Tai Tokerau seat.I also stand here as an uri of a man whose photo still shines in the corner of my tūpuna 'hare Waimirirangi (Haere-ki-te Rā) Matiu Rata the very reason the Waitangi Tribunal exists which also only at the weekend gone handed over a key report to my people of Ngāpuhi further embedding the truth that we never ceded sovereignty and our whenua as well as constitutional power must come back to us. Matiu aptly described the tribunal as a charter for tangata whenua rights and here I am continuing the fight for those rights.Looking back on this important 'hakapapa it's humbling to realise my place in the enduring pursuit of tino rangatiratanga a pursuit clearly measured in generations. I also follow on the footsteps of other formidable Māori leaders such as Mira Szászy Whina Cooper Titewhai Harawira—no walk in the park. It is more like a marathon at an AGM at your favourite marae—the best training ground ever for an aspiring MP I might add. Moreover this is an honour and a privilege that I'm taking seriously with both hands.When I left the House last Friday I went directly to Te Tii Marae to Ngāti Rēhua. A dear kaumātua and colleague lay in state Waitai Tua and I was determined to tell him off for leaving us at such a critical time. In usual tikanga style we were called on to the marae. We were able to complain to him profusely. We were able to celebrate him and send him off with great song. The whole time there I was thinking what would Waitai expect me to do and say as I head into my new job? He would want me to fight furiously for the things that only we as Māori know are important to us and let no one else describe our past nor prescribe our future. That is ours and ours alone. He would say to me: fight for us Meno and I plan to do exactly that.The following day I turned up at Te Whare Rūnanga in Waitangi to support my people of Whangaroa and other hapū o Ngāpuhi in receiving the hugely important report from the tribunal which I mentioned earlier. In my opinion the whole motu should have been there because if Ngāpuhi never ceded sovereignty no iwi or hapū in the motu ceded sovereignty. The necessary recalibration of an Aotearoa constitutional framework as recommended by the tribunal inevitably pulls in all iwi across these islands. Heoi anō perhaps that wānanga will come to bear this coming Waitangi Day.Sunday morning I drove to Te Kao to fulfil my final formal duties for now at least to my iwi of Te Aupōuri at our annual general meeting. The marae was full of whānau expectant with lots of questions and ideas of their own. I also want to acknowledge my relation Minister Jones aka Matua Shane. Even if we are at opposite ends politically whakapapa is a beautiful and peculiar thing in that it reminds us of who we are collectively and in our obligations of aroha tētahi ki tētahi [love for each other]. I hope and expect that aroha rings true in many forms across this whole Parliament as things move forward.Heoi anō. I provide this snapshot of my last three days Mr Speaker because it exposes the inner workings of the kaupapa and it is a clear reminder to me of what is central to te ao Māori. These days reflect what is possible when we are unafraid and free to express our potential . We call that tapu i te tangata [the sanctity of humanity]. When we treasure te reo Māori when we know and understand how to apply our own rules and regulations we call that tikanga Māori. When we understand and cherish the life-death life cycle we call that hauora Māori. We cannot be stopped. We are our own walking talking solutions and aspirations as Māori. We know how critical our tūpuna are to our mokopuna. We name that 'hakapapa. We acknowledge the value of cultural capital. We are vigorous in the mission of economic emancipation; let that sink in. We are the first conservationists. We are tangata whenua. We are the ones that we have been waiting for; no one else.I belong to all these wonderful people sitting in the gallery and many many more even some over here and some over there. I'm heartened that they came today to deliver me into this House into the lion's den. What I know of lions is that it is the lionesses that do the hunting and might I add keep house. So it seems I find myself in the right place ready to do my job in the way that they would have me do so: relentless fearless and ready to protect or pounce whatever may come.Along with my nine siblings we were raised by two extremely hard-working Māori-speaking parents. Like many whānau living in their rohe in the 1960s we were swept up in the Māori urban diaspora forced by meticulous and deliberate Government policy of assimilation. Desperate times indeed to find work and survive in a Pākehā economy meant we lost our physical connection to our whenua in Te Hiku ā tai ki Whangaroa the closest you can ever get to heaven as my kaumātua would describe.My parents were also of the generation who were abused for speaking Māori. Now I mention this because I know what it is to grow up in a home trying to fit the mould of hard-working and good citizens which was code for being anything other than themselves. They were forced to mute their voice cast off their cultural practices force-fed a foreign a persona and to clinch it all shun their culture. My parents like many others were not only stopped from speaking Māori but they were also stopped from being Māori. On balance colonisation ruins a people destroys their place and corrupts their identity and expects that you be grateful for the opportunity.Like many other whānau the focus was mostly work school sport church community and house and home. Becoming more politically savvy or understanding history and impacts on Māori community—Treaty breaches were not exactly the priority for our whānau; surviving was. My parents did their absolute best against the tide. Eventually alongside others my mum started a kōhanga reo which was part of her own liberation as much as replacing her 10 children who had grown and flown the coop with 30 Māori and Pākehā children wanting to speak and understand Māori. My dad still struggled with the cultural renaissance movement having been raised himself by a father dedicated to his church. Despite all these difficulties I knew that I was understood and loved by my parents.Words like colonisation" and "oppression" are not commonly understood let alone discussed in general at our at our dinner table as kids. But those are conversations I've normalised with my own kids to help them make sense of their world and their reality. I seem to have skipped the picture-book phase and gone straight to writings such as Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Now our four grown-up babies Heemi Tipene Eru and Torere-nui-a-Rua have taken rank in the resistance and are living versions of mine and their tūpunas' highest aspirations. They are the improved and evolved version of Korotangi and I and further growth will come in the form of their own children my mokopuna present and to come. They are in the gallery watching and probably praying that their mother doesn't go on too long in her first speech. But quietly they will be feeling as proud and honoured as I am of them.He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti were also not words I heard growing up but now they are as commonplace as ever and there is no force in this world that can change that. Even Pākehā are working at waking up to our truth as enshrined in these kawenata tapu [sacred covenants]. The rest are still catching up it seems.In the same way that words can destroy worlds they can also create them. Words of liberation will continue to ring in these halls. So as long as I sit in this seat that I can promise. That is my role here: to speak relentlessly the words that have long been suppressed in our hearts and minds to engineer a world where my mokopuna are happy healthy and free to live out their Māori lives with absolutely no inhibition.My work experience is another thing that has led me here. I've worked for some 40 years in the social justice and health sector focusing on women and children with my very first volunteer role with the Rape Crisis. Over the years I've worked with community groups rural adult education community agencies youth-care protection and so on and most recently with iwi Māori.Being of service is something I love to do and I've become good at it. To me that is what "rangatiratanga" means—it is not the pursuit of status but instead the pursuit of the tea towel at the marae. It is about showing up when required for your people and doing your bit for the kaupapa whatever it might look like. There is rangatiratanga in everything from diving for kina and kōura or putting out the net for kanae to feed the people at the hui to political action for our rights. I encourage us all to find our lane e te iwi and I'm confident that I've found mine here.I also want to acknowledge mentors aplenty I've had. And I intend to find them in this House and hopefully become one for others like the likes of Erima Henare Rob Cooper Gwen Tepania-Palmer and Timi and Georgina te Heuheu.To be part of Te Pāti Māori is an easy choice for me. The only party which is through and through about the kaupapa. The only party that will fight ruthlessly for te iwi Māori to the death—political or otherwise. I'm proud to be part of this rejuvenated movement and excited to see how our younger generation will carry it forward into years to come.One kōrero I'll never forget from my father-in-law Wikuki Kingi: no person is bigger than the kaupapa. I will also say that without people there's no kaupapa which also reflects the famous saying of my tipuna Meri Ngaroto: "He tāngata he tāngata he tāngata." [It is the people it is the people it is the people.]So to all the people—past present and future—who make and will continue to make a new world kia kaha ra tēnā tātou katoa.Waiata—"Toro mai tō ringa"Haka—"Ka eke i te wīwī"SPEAKER: At the conclusion of the next maiden speech the House will suspend for the dinner break. When the House resumes its sitting at 7 p.m. the House will go into committee for the consideration of the Fair Pay Agreements Act Repeal Bill. We'll just wait for a few minutes to see what happens here."