Davidson Marama: Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDavidson Marama: Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 13 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10580. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARAMA DAVIDSON (Green):Tēnā koutou huri noa i Te Whare. Ka tū au ki te tautoko i tēnei pire he pire nā te iwi o Ngātikahu ki Whangaroa me tōna whakataunga Tiriti ā nō reira he mihi nui ki a koutou katoa.[Acknowledgments to you collectively throughout the House. I stand to support this bill belonging to Ngātikahu at Whangaroa and its Treaty settlement and so a huge greeting to you all.]It is right that we acknowledge this iwi and particularly all of the people who have struggled and negotiated their way through this settlement. It is right that I again acknowledge Dr Ella Henry Pita Pāngari and Dave Hēnare as some of the lead negotiators for this settlement. The Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa settlement has also given me the opportunity—I wanted to look back at some of the other beginnings from where this settlement came.I stand here as a neighbour—a Ngāpuhi mokopuna—to Ngatikahu so it was interesting for me to learn about how in the 1980s Pita learnt from his kaumātua and kuia about the specific grievances and specific land confiscations by the Crown and that these were longstanding. In the 1980s he learnt from his kaumātua and kuia exactly how that had impacted on their iwi on their people so that in 1983 the kaumātua and kuia came from the far north and actually held a hui in Auckland at Tūtahi Tonu the marae at Epsom Teachers College. Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa was the first group to have a hui at this marae which had only just been built. Our kuia from the far north came down to this hui and some of them I found out included Tom Thomas Haki Tātai Auntie Māta Wīroa Hēnare Tūroa Tepānia Hetā Tepānia Kātera Manuel and Sid Hōkai. I thought about our far north kuia and kaumātua coming down to have this hui in Tāmaki-makau-rau talking with the younger generations about the history and the absolute impact of whenua being cohenarenfiscated and what that meant. It went right back actually to Pita’s great-great-uncle Hēmi Rua Paeara who had consistently been taking grievances and drafting petitions to the Crown for redress.This is when I think about the beauty of the process. That is not something I often say about the process because the process was brought about by grievance and that is not beautiful at all.As an adult and as a mokopuna raised in Hokianga and learning about my own Treaty grievances from my own people I am also starting to understand that it is our people who have instilled the beauty of our history in these claims—and in the kōrero to talk about Pita’s great-great-uncle Hēmi Rua Paeara who embellished the fighting spirit of Māori by continually drafting and seeking redress and how that was then after his death taken up by Pita’s grandfather Hēmi Roha Paeara—and that the beauty of the strength that we can always see in these stories comes up through these processes.I am proud to stand for the Green Party in support of this bill and in support of the hard work of those still here and those gone. It is an honour. Also one thing that I have loved about my job as a member of Parliament as a spokesperson for Māori development and as our representative on the Māori Affairs Committee is the privilege of the depth and richness of what has actually happened in these negotiations—the rich history and the stories that have come out and the names that we honour here in this House today including the many names of the many people whom we may not honour specifically but who have been involved in this negotiation. It has been fraught—they are all fraught. By their very nature Treaty negotiations between iwi and the Crown due to the grievances and the generational impact they have had are always going to be fraught. But I want to acknowledge some of the specific fraught nature.Everybody recalls particularly Ngatikahu the protests that also happened around particular pieces of land. I think back to December 2004 for example to the occupations that happened over particular pieces of land that were up for negotiation. These create uncomfortable times during all of our iwi negotiation processes. We never fully agree on a nice soft simple process along the way—that is not how any of these negotiations happen. I want to acknowledge those difficulties. I want to acknowledge the hard raru that each iwi and hapū have to balance and contend with. I want to acknowledge that the Crown’s breaching of Te Tiriti partnership creates this faction creates the hardships and the raru that set hapū and iwi against each other in these very processes. I want to acknowledge the protesters but I also want to acknowledge how difficult that then made the negotiators’ jobs as well. I acknowledge all of that—all of it. We are dealing with the hardships of these negotiations as Māori not because of something that was in our control. That is the main thing that I want to acknowledge—all of our iwi and whānau who have come here to this House today to be a part of witnessing the first reading of their Treaty settlement bill.The Greens have always understood that this settlement is a deal. As my colleague Catherine Delahunty will have laid out for the previous Treaty bills on this occasion we are very clear about what this has done to Māori and about what it continues to do. We are very clear that those breaches continue. We are very clear that these are deals and not settlements. Like all of our Māori MPs in this honourable House we are in this predicament where although we acknowledge the incredibly hard and heartbreaking work that has gone into these negotiation journeys we also understand that it is never ever going to be what is rightful redress. It is my honour to stand here and feel really awkward about these Treaty deals—and I will continue to as some of my iwi in the north are coming up. I want to acknowledge my connection to this northern iwi—to Te Tai Tokerau. I want to acknowledge all of the raru. We cannot dress this process up but that is what makes this process what it is. I want to acknowledge all of the raru beforehand.I want to acknowledge some particular Crown acknowledgments like the 1863 Mangonui purchase and how we again see exactly how the Crown awarding individual title broke down our collective kaitiaki responsibilities and set us up against each other as Māori and as kaitiaki of those lands. I want to acknowledge the particular acknowledgments—and there are many—including the apologies as Kelvin Davis referred to that are not included that always should be.Te Reo is another thing that each of our iwi lost and underwent as well. But I want to acknowledge the apologies: what the Crown does own up to in these settlements is still important. It is still the Crown being able to say “We did wrong.” and that is important. But the real work as we all know is going to continue. For that I acknowledge our iwi who have come here to the House today. Kia ora koutou katoa. Thank you.