Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): Te roa te whenua e tāwhai atu rā. E noho ana hoki au ki Pōneke rā hia. E awhi ana hoki au. Ko koe rā Te Karauna. Hei whakairitanga mō te mate o taku tinana nei e."—e ai ki te kōrero o Rua ā muri i tōna haerenga kei kōnei ki Pōneke i te tau 1909. Me maumahara tātou.Ka huri ake au ki a koutou ngā mōrehu. Ki a koutou ngā uri o Rua Kēnana te poropiti ki a koutou ngā toenga o ngā tamariki a Iharaira me ngā uri o Maungapōhatu. Ānei oku mihi ki a koutou. Ko koutou e kawea ngā tino hiahia o te poropiti. Ko koutou e kawea te taumahatanga o ngā kaupapa i ngā wā ia tau ia tau ia tau ia rā ia rā ia rā. E ngā pakanga o muri ki ngā pakanga o ēnei rā.Ka nui ōku mihi ki a koutou e ōku nei rangatira kua haramai nei i tēnei rā whakahirahira. Mai i te maunga o Maungapōhatu kei kōnei ki tō tātou nei Whare o Te Pāremata. Tēnā koutou.["The long the country that stretches long and wide. I am in Wellington indefinitely. I also embrace you. You are the Crown. There will be relief for the illness within me."—according to Rua after travelling here to Wellington in the year 1909. We must remember.I turn to you the descendants. To you the descendants of Rua Kēnana the prophet; to you the leftovers of the children of Iharaira and the descendants of Maungapōhatu. Here are my acknowledgments to you. You carry the hopes of the prophet. You carried the burden of this matter every year every year every year every day every day every day. The battles of the future to the battles of today.I give my heartfelt acknowledgments to you my distinguished leaders who have made it here on this important day. From the mountain of Maungapōhatu here we are in Parliament. Greetings.]It's not lost upon me that in 1909 the prophet Rua Kēnana travelled down to Wellington. He came down from Maungapōhatu in a time politically wrought. The Crown just two years prior had introduced the Tohunga Suppression Act 1907 many say as a consequence of watching the movement that Rua Kēnana was leading up in Maungapōhatu. In 1909 also—probably not unlike today as we all have in our own various homes—there were different views in the ways in which to advance the aspirations of the people in Te Urewera. So the prophet Rua Kēnana took it upon himself to come down here to advocate on behalf of Ngā Iharaira's aspirations for the whenua for ngā wawata—the aspirations for development economic development for opening up the roads. The words that I shared at the start—and I couldn't sing it as eloquently as our friends may do at some point—were words that he wrote as I best understand on his haerenga back home to Maungapōhatu: the vastness the voice declaration of the land connecting part of this land to another. As I contemplate here in Wellington I am cautious with your means—with you the Crown. To uphold your process that beset the difficulties and connections to my land connected to my body.Consequently as we have come to hear in this House today but also over many a year and many a fora—whether it's been through the tribunals or on paepae in warm houses throughout your rohe—we have heard how the prophet was right to be cautious. We have heard from colleagues in this House—the Hon Nanaia Mahuta just prior and eloquently summarised by colleagues from across the aisle—the actions of the Crown and the consequences thereof for your people which led us here to this moment in time today where we on behalf of the Crown apologise to you ngā uri o Rua Kēnana for the wrongful pursuit of and incarceration of and the death of your people and your place. Today marks another step in restoring the balance between the Crown and your people.My colleagues have acknowledged many of the events that occurred around that time but for me I want to stretch my mind back to 2003 when three women—Tira Tamiana Tiare Ture Whenua and Kirituia Tumarae—brought this claim to give voice to Ngā Tamariki a Iharaira in the tribunal.Ka huri ake au ki a koe e te pāpā e Richard. Kua kitea koe i waenganui i a tātou me maumahara te wahine a Kirituia tō hoa tino pūmau.[I turn to you my elder Richard. I have seen you amongst us and must remember Kirituia your beloved.]I just want to acknowledge that we feel her here with us today. I recall when you received the Crown up at Maungapōhatu in 2003. Kirituia's tangi Kirituia's kāranga to the Crown which I have etched in my memory as she called out to all those that had been lost as she called out to it felt like the stars of several universes far beyond the realms that we were standing within. But that kāranga stretched for nigh on 30 minutes I would say unbroken. She brought the pain and the grief—the mamae—of the uri o Rua Kēnana. Today marks 16-odd years since those stories were shared with the Crown. It's been a long journey for those that have remained to ensure that justice in some way shape or form comes and that the balance is restored for ngā uri o Rua Kēnana.I want to turn to when I was a mere 19-year-old just finished my second year of law school and travelled up to the Ureweras—I don't know what I had in my mind—with your lawyer who has stuck by you for many years Jason Pou. I travelled up with Jason and actually we ended up staying about five months up in the Ureweras. We etched your stories into briefs of evidence.I want to acknowledge my friend Atamira Tumarae who was 15 years old as she stood in 2003 up in Maungapōhatu and shared the kōrero of Rua Kēnana as she shared the mamae that her generation and all uri carried as a consequence of the pakanga as a consequence of our actions—the Crown's actions. And she spoke too then—and I spoke with her again this morning—how all of this is only about ensuring the aspirations that today marks a shift in the restoration of the relationship that brings about—"transformational change" were the words she used—transformational change for your peoples. So we embark upon this journey together.I want to acknowledge Te Ururoa Flavell who too formed an instrumental part alongside his colleagues in the previous Government. We acknowledge you and we thank you and we're here to embark together on the next stages of this relationship. Tēnā koutou."