Kuriger BarbaraBARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): Thank you Madam Speaker and welcome Ngāti Maru. Apologies that I couldn't be with you at lunchtime. I had a prior engagement so I wasn't able to join you then. But I am very pleased that for this third reading you are able to be in Parliament with us because it's been a very lonely journey standing here and speaking to the past readings of the bill and feeling like we're speaking to an empty House. But that is just the time and the place that we live in due to COVID-19. But it is excellent that at least a small number of you are able to attend today. As I think about many of the atrocities that are happening in the world today it really makes us feel very humble about the atrocities that happened in our own country all of those years ago and those that did happen to Ngāti Maru. It was very sad to know that Ngāti Maru were not involved in the land dealings which led to the war in Taranaki in 1860 and were not directly involved in the subsequent fighting. Involvement was limited to providing refuge to Wīremu Kīngi Te Rangitake in accordance with the requirements of whanaungatanga but then it all changed and the Crown came along and confiscated huge tracts of Taranaki to punish the so-called rebels. In 1865 approximately half of the traditional lands of Ngāti Maru were included. As I mentioned before Ngāti Maru were not involved in the land dealings and not involved in the subsequent fighting and yet the Crown actually had the gall at the time to call Ngāti Maru rebels and go ahead and confiscate the majority of their land. The main kāinga urupā and wāhi tapu were taken and some of those have never been returned. So following the confiscation Ngāti Maru continued to live on their lands that they still managed to have left and in the early 1870s the Crown attempted to promote European settlement on that confiscated land by paying some Ngāti Maru compensation for the rights that the confiscation had extinguished. These deeds of cession covering about 60000 acres created significant divisions within the iwi compounding the damage already caused by the loss of the land. But it seems a lot of the promises and a lot of the conversations that were held in the early days never really came to fruition. So in the early 1890s some Ngāti Maru were virtually landless and they appealed to the Crown for help. The Crown's response was slow and ineffective and if it was slow and ineffective in the early 1890s we have already now had the 1990s and we stand here in this House today in 2022 talking to fix that. The response from the Crown was slow and ineffective and it's been a long time coming this agreement that's been reached by Ngāti Maru. I acknowledge everyone who's played a part in this because it is never in my view a complete settlement. It is in my view an agreement between two parties to in some part make up for the things that happened a very long time ago and I would commend the generosity as I often do of the iwi in coming to this place and accepting this settlement. All the way back then an agreement to consolidate individual awards into more economical viable family holdings was never carried out. Landless Ngāti Maru people not named in the 1907 Acts didn't receive any land and despite further petitions in 1946 the Crown finally declined to provide any further land for Ngāti Maru. Much of the tribe's remaining land came later under the Public Trustee administration and it was subject to perpetual leases that invariably benefited Pākehā farmers rather than the Ngāti Maru owners. The extensive loss of the Ngāti Maru lands has eroded tribal structures created severe poverty and damaged the physical cultural and spiritual health of generations of Ngāti Maru people. I only hope that in coming to this place to reach a settlement you have the opportunity to rebuild as much of your structure your culture and the spiritual health of the generations. You know it's many generations. There's a lot of generations that have gone before that won't be around to see what's going to happen in the future but I guess as you move forward—and today you will move forward—these people will be in your mind and you will know who they are much better than I will because they will be your parents and your grandparents and your great-grandparents and probably your great-great-grandparents who went through the worst of these atrocities.The intense sense of loss and disconnection is expressed in the following Ngāti Maru lament: Maru HāhāHāhā te whenuaHāhā te tangata.Maru of extreme loss and breathlessnessThe land is desertedThe people are gone and gasping for breath.So post today and following today I really have high hopes that that breathlessness in some part—that the breath will be returned to your iwi. I really look forward to some of the exciting moments that are going to happen in the future. I was out at the signing of the memorandum which was going to be a massive event at the time of about 600 or more people. Unfortunately due to COVID-19 at the time that wasn't able to be a full attendance and it was attended by about 40 or 50 of us. At that time Minister Little because the apology was not able to be made to everybody committed to come back and to personally pass on the Crown's apology to the other members of your iwi who weren't able to attend on that day. So I look forward to that day. I look forward to that day in Taranaki where Minister Little can come back on behalf of all of us and make that apology. Also coming back I know you've got a new marae in the making and it is probably at this time largely completed we hope: a new home for your people to gather at. I think it's just an excellent time for you to move forward and hopefully this will redress at least in part some of the wrongs of the past. I heard Angela Roberts speaking before me about the whenua the land the conservation and the maunga and when I look at Part 2 of the bill and the areas that are subject to the acknowledgment in the deed of recognition there are some fantastic conservation areas in here. I know they're in good hands—they're already in good hands—and together we can help improve our land in Taranaki with our working together and making sure that we look after our lakes our rivers and our biodiversity. I know that you will put every effort into the conservation projects that are in front of you because that's where your heart is and that's where our heart is so congratulations on reaching this point. We're almost at the end of the reading and I encourage you to celebrate. Thank you.