Okeroa Mahara: Central North Island Forests Land Collective Settlement Bill — First Reading 
Okeroa Mahara: Central North Island Forests Land Collective Settlement Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:648;Page:16927] 
Hon MAHARA OKEROA (Minister of State) 
: 
 Tena no tatou. Those who have been in the House all afternoon have witnessed the whole dynamic of what this debating chamber is about from the wahanga patapatai to the wahanga kapahaka and now to something a bit more dignified. On that basis my personality will change to suit the occasion. Tena tatou katoa. 
I want to say firstly that it is just as important to remember the people who are not here: people who have grown up people who have suffered and people who have held on to the aspiration that sometime in the future there may be a resolution. So the first part of my short presentation this evening is kei te mihi atu ki a ratou ko ratou kua timata ke o ratou hikoitanga i runga i te ara ruiti te ara pamamao te ara mutunga kore ki te pae mauhara te tini me te mano. A ratau ra e mau piri ai i nga whakaaro i nga nawe e whakararurau mai i o ratou nei kaingakau. 
[ 
an acknowledgment to ones who are no longer here and who held views and concerns about what they valued 
.]  
And as we do believe the journey is but a transition ratau e noho wairua mai i runga i nga pokohiwi o te katoa o koutou nei tena tatau. 
[ 
the ones whose spiritual presence are there upon your shoulders greetings to us 
.] 
Secondly having experienced what it is like to grow up on the margins of the area that I came from and having absorbed some of the hard lessons that are associated with being pohara being not quite part of the loop seeing old people not respected for what they are and having one’s own cosmology history and culture denigrated I bring to my discussion a full understanding of the whole collection of those feelings. I need then to congratulate the people the uri on going past that and looking towards the future. I cannot say that at this moment in Parihaka where I grew up we are quite there yet. Where I came from our transport was either a horse or a horse and cart. Our community was surrounded by farmers who were growing quite wealthy—kua raupatungia te whenua [ 
the land was confiscated 
]—so I bring those kinds of feelings towards a very emotional yet highly successful day like today. So I congratulate all the people on making the transformation without forgetting the past but not dwelling in it and looking forward to future opportunities. 
The next thing I would say as part three of my korero is that today I think we have learnt something quite extraordinary and it is about a dynamic and it is about a principle. The principle that I saw as an observer today is how awesomely powerful we Maori are as people if we combine on a take and take it forward together. That would be as I see it one of the key principles that were demonstrated by all of the participants from all of the iwi who came here today. It is also absolutely critical when we think about the relationships and the partnerships and the arrangements that the people make going into the future. This particular claim will carry on and be more successful when the people then form collaborations with the wider New Zealand community and indeed internationally. I congratulate them. 
I would like to finish on this note: anei tetehi o nga korero kua poropitahia e toku nei kaumatua tauheke a Te Whiti o Rongomai. Anei ana nei korero 
[ 
here is one of the predictions that my elder Te Whiti o Rongomai uttered. Here is what he said 
] 
when he was peacefully addressing the soldiers at Parihaka while they rampaged: “Na koutou te paua tuatahi ma matau te iwi Maori te paua whakamutunga.” No reira tena koutou hurihuri noa mauri ora. Ka tautoko ahau i runga i te kaupapa rangatira kua whakatutuki mai e koutou.” 
[“ 
Yours is the first but we the Maori people have the final one.” So greetings to you throughout and remain well. I support what you have brought before us to consider. 
]  
I do not have a conflict of interest. I do not like others have a long waewae that might somehow by mystical means go back to the  
Mataatua 
 waka or somewhere. So what I say to you is mai i nga korero a koro a kui ma e mihi atu ki a koutou kopikopiko ai tenei uri o te maunga Titohea o Taranaki ki a tatau. 
[ 
from the stories of the elderly men and womenfolk this relative of the mountain Titohea of Taranaki greets you 
.]