Tirikatene Rino: Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 05 June 2013. Volume:690;Page:10801. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Kāti tihei wā mauri ora ki te whaiao ki te ao mārama. E Te Wai Pounamu takoto rapua te mea ngaro. Hoki ake nei ahau ki te rū o Waitaha he roimata tōku kai i te ao i te pō. E ngā iwi o Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka tēnā koutou. Rangitāne Ngāti Apa Ngāti Kuia Te Āti Awa Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama Ngāti Kōata Ngati Toa Rangatira tēnā koutou. Haere mai haere mai haere mai. Nō koutou tēnei rā ko tēnei te rā whakahirahira. Haere mai nunui mā teitei mā nau mai piki mai ki Te Ana o te Raiona ki te Pāremata i tū ai a nunui mā a teitei mā ki te whakatutuki i ngā wawata ō rātou mā. Tēnā koutou i ngā mate e hinga atu rā e hinga mai nei. E te rangatira Amohanga Stafford haere haere atu rā. Moe mai i te ringaringa o Te Ariki. Āpiti hono tātai hono ko te hunga mate ki te hunga mate. Āpiti hono tātai hono tātou te hunga ora ki te hunga ora tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[Thank you Mr Speaker. Well then to the world of light life and enlightenment behold the breath of life. To you the South Island lie there seek that which is lost. Allow me to go back to the Canterbury earthquake where tears consumed me day and night. To the tribes of the Prow of the Canoe greetings to you collectively. To youRangitāne Ngāti Apa Ngāti Kuia Te Āti Awa Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama Ngāti Kōata and Ngati Toa Rangatira welcome welcome welcome. This is your day and a very significant one at that. Welcome the great and illustrious. Welcome and come aboard the Den of the Lion the Parliament where the great and the famous stood to fulfil the aspirations of those who have passed on. I acknowledge you the deaths that have fallen there and here. Esteemed elder Amohanga Stafford farewell depart. Rest there in the arms of the Lord. The lines are joined; let the dead be among themselves. The lines are connected; let the living be among themselves so greetings salutations and acknowledgments to you and to us all collectively.]It is a pleasure to speak in support of the Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill at its first reading. The northern portion of the South Island is known to Māori as Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka a Māui—the prow of Māui’s waka. It is an area steeped in European as well as Māori history. English explorer James Cook called into Tōtaranui—Queen Charlotte Sound—seeking directions. One of the local chiefs took him up a hill and pointed out Raukawa Moana and then the cheeky bugger went and renamed it Cook Strait. That was back in 1769.In 1819 the war parties of Ngāpuhi of Northland and Ngāti Toa of Kāwhia took part in Amiowhenua—the encircling of the land. They split in two and went down both sides of the North Island. It was while raiding here in Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara that a Ngāpuhi chief pointed out a whaling ship to Te Rauparaha and told him of the advantages of being close to Pākehā. It was while on this journey that Te Rauparaha started to formulate a plan to bring his tribe who were under pressure in Kāwhia down to the Kāpiti coast.In 1820 Ngāti Toa and their confederates Ngāti Kōata and Ngāti Rārua under extreme pressure from Waikato-Tainui were forced from their ancestral lands at Kāwhia Taharoa Marokopa Kiritehere and Waikawau. These defeated tribes headed for north Taranaki to seek refuge with their relations Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Mutunga. That in turn put pressure on Ngāti Toa’s hosts. After spending the season growing crops Ngāti Toa with Kōata Rārua and now Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Mutunga left to come down to Kāpiti. From 1822 through to 1839 these tribes engaged with the original inhabitants and tribes in what became known as New Zealand’s civil war. It was during this period that Te Tau Ihu became settled—and I use that term relatively as it was quite an unsettled settlement.In 1839 we had more Pākehā interaction. This time the Wakefields and their New Zealand Company were in town looking for land and it is at this juncture in our history that things start to go wrong. The reason we are here today is that story of resettlement. It covers a period of 40 years of history from 1820 to 1860.Roughly 20 years of northern Māori trying to settle a new land were followed by 20 years of Pākehā doing the exact same thing. The problem for these two sides was that they were playing with different rules. This led to misunderstanding and eventually conflict—cue the introduction at this time of the cleverest Pākehā of all the Pākehās who had come to the new colony of New Zealand up to that point: one George Grey. This man who led the colony as both Governor-General and Premier had a very big hand in why we are here today.Throughout these settlement readings the theme to all of my kōrero has been that to understand Māori history is to understand whakapapa and with today’s bill I will declare my own interest in that whakapapa and history. Most will know of my Ngāi Tahu connection but that part of my whakapapa also includes the blood of the northern raiders of Te Tai Poutini the Ngāti Rārua chief Niho and his confederates Pikiwhara and Horomona and others who made their homes in Te Tau Ihu in places like Motueka Golden Bay Pākāwau and West Whanganui Inlet who decided to invade the WestCoast. Tūhuru my Ngāi Tahu ancestor an ariki of Te Tai Poutini made peace with Niho through the marriage of his daughter Nihorere in an effort to bring about peace for his hapū. I am a direct descendant of that peace deal that tatau pounamu the jade door of peace—something my whānau hold precious. As the saying goes grandchildren bring common sense to fighting grandfathers.The bill before us covers the eight iwi of Te Tau Ihu and legislation for the Ka Mate haka. What this bill and other historical reports have shown is the way many families of the northern alliance missed out on a share of payments for having land sold from under them and the subsequent failure of the Crown to sort the problem out during inquiries of royal commissions. Grey’s willingness to do deals with Te Rauparaha and Ngāti Toa went a long way to alienating whānau and hapū from Ngāti Tama Ngāti Rārua and Ngāti Awa from payment for their lands at Tai Tapu and Pakawau as well as being left out of the Nelson Tenths and the Motueka Tenths and the Wakatū Incorporation and other such organisations that have come into being since the days of Grey.In this bill there are stories of land being granted to the Crown for the purpose of educating Māori children of the time. In Nelson the Crown opened a school for a couple of years but it was soon closed and the land that was gifted went not back to the owner but was alienated from Māori by the Crown. The Ngāti Toa case of Whitireia Park is an even worse case of the Crown’s broken promises. Ngāti Toa never got their college for Māori education; they lost the land completely. Petitions and inquiries were of no avail.Then came the famous case ofWī Pārata v Bishop of Wellington. Wī Pārata was a chief of Ngāti Toa a former member of this House and an MP for Western Māori. He retired from Parliament to take up the land cases that affected his iwi namely Ngāti Awa and Ngāti Toa. This case was famous for those famous—or infamous—words uttered by Judge Prendergast: “The Treaty is a nullity.” when summing up the Whitireia case that Wī Pārata ultimately lost. That is the way Pākehā New Zealand fought back in Wī Pārata’s day and even before. Māori had no rights and the Treaty meant nothing to Pākehā. The Church of England paid the price with some Ngāti Toa accepting Mormonism as their religion. The Crown saw this ruling as justification to ignore the principles of the Treaty.And so today here we are on Thursday 6 June although in Parliament time we are actually still on Wednesday. But this day sees the Crown starting that process to say sorry and to reimburse these eight iwi as best as the Government can with what little resource is at its disposal. It is at this point that I take up my late colleague friend and chief Parekura Horomia’s plea for more money. I implore Minister Finlayson and his Office of Treaty Settlements because without fail in every bill that came before this House Parekura Horomia wanted just a little bit more for Māori. He had been a Minister of Māori Affairs at a time when Treaty negotiations were handled a bit more slowly they were handled a bit differently from the way negotiations are handled today. But be that as it may he never failed in asking Minister Finlayson for a few million more for a few more yards of earth or a couple more trees. So I leave you with those words from beyond the veil.This bill and settlement is nearly 500 pages long. It covers eight iwi in the kaka kamate. I have touched on only a few subjects close to my whakapapa. In subsequent readings I look forward to debating other parts of the bill that affect other iwi such as Ngāti Kuia Ngāti Apa Rangitāne and Te Ātiawa. These people have a story to tell and over subsequent readings their story and history will come out. Again may I acknowledge all representatives from ngā iwi o Te Tau Ihu who have travelled here today and the teams of people negotiators past and present from both sides who have worked so hard to bring us to this historic day. Ka nui taku kōrero i tēnei wā nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[That is enough from me for now so acknowledgments and greetings to you and to us all.]I commend this bill to the House.