Waititi RawiriRAWIRI WAITITI (Te Paati Māori—Waiariki): Tēnā tātou e te Whare. Kia orana. Talofa lava. Mālō e lelei. Fakaalofa lahi atu. Ni sa bula vinaka. Aloha. Mauri ki a tātou e hika mā i tēnei Whare. Ka tū au i runga i te mana o te Paati Māori i tēnei rā ki te kōrero i ngā kōrero e hāngai tō ki tēnei kaupapa whakahirahira.[Greetings to us all my fellow MPs in this House. I stand today on behalf of the Māori Party to talk specifically on this important subject.]I would like to first acknowledge those who put in the mahi to see this day come. I would like to mihi to the Polynesian Panthers who this year celebrate their 50th year anniversary since their formation. I would like to acknowledge the Pacific communities in which the legacy of the Dawn Raids still lives on especially in South Auckland. To the petitioners and the organisers of this petition Josiah Tualamali'i and Benji Timu—who are here today—for requesting this special debate take place in the House of Parliament thank you for your presence and for carrying the weight of the 7366 signatures to this Whare today.E te rangatira e Te Aupito ka mihi anō ki a koe me ō kōrero kua whakatakatoria i mua i te aroaro o tēnei Whare.[To the honourable Te Aupito I again acknowledge you and what you have said within this House.]We are elated that the Government has finally apologised. This was a Crown apology. But we are excited to begin a new chapter with our whanaunga of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa; to begin a new conversation that unites tangata whenua and tangata moana towards our collective vision of our Aotearoa hau.During the Dawn Raids era Pasifika families were branded as overstayers and they were the target of systemic and personal racist attacks. These attacks sought to isolate and disenfranchise Pacific people from their communities threatening their jobs and presence here in Aotearoa. This is essentially the harm of colonisation. We as tangata whenua were robbed of the opportunity to manaaki our tangata moana whanaunga and that is absolutely devastating. Our right to manaaki and welcome our tangata moana whanaunga into our whare was disrupted by the Government's colonial Whare racist immigration policies and policing tactics. The Dawn Raids act as a tragic reminder of the reality of the racism of our political system.What do the police see when they see brown faces? Criminals violence overstayer but not brother father cousin leader or activist. Our journeys of navigation and migration have led us back to each other and our kinship runs deep and is bound across generations.Ka whakawhiti i whakawhiti atu ki Hawaiki-nui ki Hawaiki-roa ki Hawaiki pāmamao.[We crossed we emigrated to the great Hawaiki to the long Hawaiki to the distant Hawaiki.]We as tangata whenua have been included in the story from the beginning. As Ngā Tamatoa and the Polynesian Panthers worked together they showcased the special relationship between tangata whenua and tangata moana and our shared fight for liberation and justice in Aotearoa. Together we have stood side by side against injustice and colonial oppression and we will continue to do so.Te Paati Māori wholeheartedly support the calls for education on the Dawn Raids to be taught in schools. It is part of our fabric of our history and our whakapapa of tangata moana in Aotearoa. It is important that our future generations are able to learn about our shared hardship as tangata whenua and tangata moana as we move towards a Tiriti-centric Aotearoa. This discussion is more timely than ever.We have a lot of aroha for our whanaunga across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa especially as we face uncertain futures: our climate suffers te taiao suffers and our tangata moana whānau feel these impacts more than anyone. We as tangata whenua will uphold our tikanga which allows us to manaaki our whanaunga of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa as according to our tikanga so that we may collectively build our Aotearoa hau. We must hold space for this kōrero to take action towards justice. We must learn how to be true whanaunga for each other in the collective struggles. We are the movement that leaves no one behind. Just like the many rivers we identify with and flow out to the moana as moana peoples the ocean denies no rivers. Let this be the beginning of the conversation about how we can do better for our tangata moana whānau and how we as a country can right the wrongs of the past and move forward to a better future.Tangata moana this is my message to you: you are not overstayers you are not a problem to be solved you are not leeches to this country and you do not need to be assimilated. Tangata moana you are our whanaunga; our shared whakapapa tells us so. Kia ora tātou.