Delahunty Catherine: Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDelahunty Catherine: Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 31 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12227. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green):Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. He mihi nui ki te tangata whenua o Te Arawa Ngāti Rangiteaorere Ngāti Rangiwewehi me Tapuika tēnā koutou.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and a huge acknowledgment to the locals of Te Arawa namely Ngāti Rangiteaorere Ngāti Rangiwewehi and Tapuika. Salutations to you collectively. ]It is a humble moment to be able to speak in the presence of the people for whom this bill the Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru Claims Settlement Bill is so important. I would also like to acknowledge the co-leader of the Māori Party Te Ururoa Flavell his connection to this bill his connection to the rohe and therefore his particular contribution to our House as a proud member of Te Arawa. I would like to also acknowledge our new member Meka Whaitiri of Ngāti Kahungunu. Tēnā koe. It is great to have you on board.This bill is an omnibus measure that covers aspects of three Te Arawa iwi claims and it gives effect to the deeds of settlement that the Crown has negotiated. This negotiation includes some very significant issues that others have touched upon. My own personal connection to this is that my grandfather bought land on the lakeside of Rotorua in the 1930s. I have to say to the shame of my family that nobody in my family at the time or since until recent years would have any concept of what had happened to the land and the whenua to the area to the rohe and to the iwi of the area. Nobody in their enjoyment of the magical wonderland and playground that is Rotorua had any concept of whose toes had been stamped on or whose fingernails perhaps had been ripped out in the colonisation of the area.These are places such as Tikitere and Hamurana Springs that are iconic and magical which many of us enjoyed in our childhoods as manuhiri exquisite lakes such as Ōkataina and those that were exquisite but are now deeply polluted by years of bad farming practice sewerage disposal pentachlorophenol contamination from the Waipā lakes and Waipā sawmill and erosion. All of those things have been a heavy weight upon tangata whenua but many others have come and gone and ignored or been unaware of those very important rights and relationships that have been trampled on. So it is an important day—a beginning at least towards healing some of those issues. The three iwi from the eastern side of the lakes and out to the coast have waited a very long time for redress.The Crown apologies are a really important part of this bill. The apology is for the effect of warfare and land theft which the iwi did not seek and the loss of tribe authority life land resources social structures etc. and very important the ability to exercise customary rights and responsibilities. As others have said the native land laws in particular were—and I believe still are—devastating in their ability to alienate. It is appropriate that the Crown acknowledges and apologises for the effects of these laws on hapū and whānau. Let us make sure that the Native Land Court now allegedly reformed and other instruments do not continue. That is why the Green Party does not believe in full and final settlement. Because we do not think that the rest of the legislative framework of this country supports justice yet we believe that tangata whenua must always have the right to claim and to speak out on these issues. All of these words do not adequately convey the multilayered nightmare of colonisation.I just want to speak about one aspect of the loss—the loss of access to customary rights and responsibilities. The lakes rivers and hot springs of the rohe are legendary and magnificent taonga and although contaminated in many instances once must have been the most productive source of kai of energy and of mana. The loss is not only of the physical access to these resources it is also the history of contamination which I know these iwi have fought for in a very steadfast manner. Kaituna for example under the Tapuika settlement is a legendary name for the wrong reasons as well as for the right reasons. “Kai-tuna”—I can only imagine the abundance of kai the abundance of tuna that were once in that river. What has been done to that river is inexcusable andunforgettable. Let us hope that some of the mechanisms of this bill will start to restore it.For Ngāti Rangiteaorere there is specific cultural address in terms of Waiohewa stream which is vested in the trustees. There is commercial redress. It is an advancement of agreements that were set out in 1993 and I hope for those who have worked so hard since 1993 that this feels like a really big milestone and major progress for them.Ngāti Rangiwewehi equally were marginalised totally through the war and the raupatu in the Tauranga area. The bill does clarify issues around their settlement in relation to fisheries protocol and creates joint management structures for some sites as well as very strong conservation-related rights which are important. Cultural harvest is an integral part of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and was never ever given up by many people.I want to talk briefly about co-governance in relation to Tapuika because they established Te Maru o Kaituna the Kaituna River Authority as a permanent joint committee for the restoration protection and enhancement of that awa. This involves a number of iwi including the Tapuika Iwi Authority and the local authorities and it will be vital for this group to work and vital for the kaupapa of restoring the Kaituna River and providing for the well-being of the communities with their deep whakapapa and kaitiaki connections to this long-abused and much-treasured waterway.It must always be acknowledged that co-governance is not article 2. It is not tino rangatiratanga. It is a response to the current reality and it is generously agreed upon by mana whenua in the spirit of relationship-building. My honourable colleague Tau Henare talked about co-governance in a previous speech this morning as a kind of unique mechanism in Aotearoa. It is actually a global model and it has mixed success. Co-governance is not the sovereignty of tangata whenua but it is what is possible in the current situation and therefore should be welcomed and celebrated.But if you look at Sami if you look at the Arctic if you look at Australia and the indigenous people there there are real challenges in co-governance in terms of two very different world views sitting at the table and doing what they need to do which is negotiate and there are real issues of power. If you talk to any of the Aboriginal people from Central Australia and you talk to some of the Arctic indigenous people the challenges are very important but they are also very profound. So we cannot romanticise co-governance much as we celebrate it. We have to recognise that it is always about power. It is always about power and it is very important that we recognise the challenges within it because we need to be at the table but that is not article 2. That is just the reality that we need to deal with and it is a good reality.This omnibus bill has a number of technical provisions to clarify the unfinished business for these iwi who have come together to progress justice with the Crown—and well done for that. Like all such legislation it includes some recognition of rights to very sacred places and lost resources. It provides some opportunities for forest and fisheries ownership and some shared governance over bodies of important rivers and sites. But reading these bills always gives a sense for me as a Pākehā and for many of mine of how little we really know about the original price that was paid and how hard the journey has been to this point. I think it is very important that with humility those of us who do not come from Te Arawa and who have enjoyed that rohe recognise what we do not know what we have not experienced and what is still unseen through the process.As always the Green Party is cognisant of the silent side whereby other citizens who have enjoyed this magic are not participating and barely know how important this day is in terms of these three iwi. The depressing emails I receive claiming that the “Treaty gravy train” provides Māori with so many privileges just show the depth ofignorance and the gaps so I welcome any settlement bill that will provide historical background. One of the most beneficial things about the bill is the stories told. But we need to get those stories out again to the people who think that Rotorua is a tourist mecca rather than the rohe of the important Te Arawa tribes.I still receive so much in my in-box that should not be there and I do hope that through this process and this very important bill and the other bills that we are happy to support today that there will be more information more education and more positive challenges to people who still do not understand what really goes on. Obviously these iwi are legendary for their extraordinary hospitality their extraordinary generosity and their extraordinary culture. People come to enjoy that culture and pay for that privilege from all around the world. But it is here in Aotearoa that the challenge must go out to my own culture and tauiwi katoa. We need to learn the history. We need to own the past. We need to recognise our present privilege and we need to stand up for a continuing dialogue on the Treaty of Waitangi so that these settlements will have the full meaning that they should have. Kia ora tātou.