Williams ArenaARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): Pōpō! E tangi ana tama ki te kai mānaWaiho me tiki ake ki te PouahaokaiMe ā mai te pakake ki uta rā Hei waiū mō tama! Kia hōmai e tō tipuna e Uenuku! Whakarongo! Ko te kūmara ko Parinuiterā. Ka hikimata te tapuae o TangaroaKa whaimata te tapuae o Tangaroa. Tangaroa!Tēnā koe Madam Speaker and me mihi ki a koutou katoa ngā uri o Te Whakatōhea.[Greetings Madam Speaker and I greet you all descendants of Te Whakatōhea.]I began with that waiata because it recognises the place of the tender child in our histories and it is a history itself told as a lullaby to young children who grew up in the tender embrace of those stories which make us special. It is a song that was taught to me by my father Haare Mahanga Te Wehinga Williams who grew up on the shores of the Ōhiwa Harbour and learnt it from his grandmother Patutoro Wairemana. She was the daughter of Whiuwhiu who was the daughter of Tūtakangahau of Tūhoe. And that connection between the Ōhiwa Harbour the people of Te Whakatōhea Te Ūpokorehe and Tūhoe lives on in him and in the generations to follow.As the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee it's an honour and a privilege to stand here today and be a part of this very significant day for Te Whakatōhea and to acknowledge my colleagues around the House would only be right and those negotiators who have taken part in what has been a very long and difficult process of finding common ground.You know many of my colleagues around the House and members of the Māori Affairs Committee have spoken today about how these processes divide us and you can see it that way. There is that in this but there is also a process of finding common ground of doing the work that it takes in a democracy to find those things that we can all agree on. The Treaty settlement process in Aotearoa is something that we do agree on and I'm proud to be a part of a Government that is continuing a legacy of successive Governments of many colours honouring and upholding the Treaty in that way to give our history the important place in our history books and to recognise the hara of the Crown and the mamae that it has caused.So in light of that bipartisanship I had the work of the Hon Chris Finlayson in my House box because I like to read it in question time. The Te Whakatōhea settlement is something that he speaks about a lot in this book. I honour his work in advancing that settlement. And though he did not get to sign it as the Treaty settlements Minister may I acknowledge the heavy place in his heart which I think it had. He writes in the book Mandate problems will be inevitable when dealing with longstanding grievances. Neither the Crown nor iwi will always get things right. Some decisions will not prove to be the right ones. The alternative is to sit back and not try anything. Some groups have made that choice. At times so has the Crown." And he wished for Te Whakatōhea to be here this day where we are moving forward and acknowledging those things which have been negotiated by the Crown in Te Whakatōhea.I also want to acknowledge the Minister Andrew Little. He said in his opening remarks today that today is Te Whakatōhea's day and it truly is—a day for that tender child pōpō a day for the children and the young people in the gallery and a day for my children of Te Whakatōhea my three-year-old Waioeka who bears the name of our river and the spirit; not only the serene the calm the life giving but the force the haruru the extreme power of that river which connects so much of our rohe and informs so many of our tūpuna stories.As the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee it would be my duty if we continued indefinitely in this Parliament to consider the details of this legislation and to hear the submissions on it. I'm under no illusion that that committee will hear forceful submissions from not only the people in the gallery today but also people who oppose it people who find reason and flaws—whether it's the process or the words here in the deed. And I want to speak to some of those things which I think the select committee should consider in its work on this bill before we come again to the second and third readings.If you'll allow me Madam Speaker this for me comes back to a day in 2015 when I attended the 150th commemorations of the siege of Te Tarata with Te Whakatōhea and my father. Minister Willie Jackson spoke of that day too. He talked about Dr Ranginui Walker's speech where he chastised the Minister for the lack of progress on Te Whakatōhea's claims. I remember that really well because I was working at the time with Dr Ranginui Walker as an expert providing evidence on Ngāti Whatua o Ōrākei's claims in Auckland. He remains one of our foremost historians in Te Ao Māori and he spoke with such passion that day about how he wished for a settlement because of the opportunity for Te Whakatōhea which he saw as languishing and the need for New Zealanders to appreciate the deep and dark history that is being told in this deed of settlement and in the many other histories which this brings to light. It's a real honour to be here to celebrate his legacy and his contribution to history in New Zealand but also to remember that day when I have no doubt that he and the other rangatira who spoke spurred the Crown forward and made sure that we got here today.I want to talk about Mokomoko and the further education and research needed here. For me the story of Mokomoko does feel personal. It reminds me of the trial of Hetariki Te Oikau who is my tūpuna alongside Rewi Tamanui Totitoti and Martene te Karo in 1869. They were also tried for crimes against the Crown which resulted in one of New Zealand's hangings. Mokomoko is a figure in our history who should be examined by legal historians and New Zealand historians. His story is a clear way to understand how the Crown used our judicial system to not only take land but to take our mana.In the Crown apology my colleague Jan Logie in her speech acknowledged that these words are negotiated words. They are words that we can come to a common understanding about. But let me say for the words of the Crown apology to do with Mokomoko that where it says "Whakatōhea know the Crown used Völkner's death as an excuse to invade Te Whakatōhea rohe." I know that. I know that Whakatōhea was used by the Crown and used Mokomoko's conviction to justify confiscating Whakatōhea land. This caused blame to be placed on Mokomoko whānau rather than the Crown for the suffering of Te Whakatōhea and such a misunderstanding led over time to acts of retribution from some members of Whakatōhea towards the Mokomoko whānau. This is a history that we know that we share amongst ourselves that we teach to our children and it's right that we continue to do so and that all New Zealanders know that.I also want to talk about the Ōhiwa Harbour which is important to me and I'm proud that this deed of settlement outlines the way that the Whakatōhea Kaitiaki Forum will work with the local council to continue to protect it. It's right that there is so much in the deed of settlement and such a focus on the environmental protections which are the true role of iwi in this. We must act as kaitiaki and we must have that kaitiaki-ship enshrined in our law at the highest level. This is such an important piece of work because it looks after a fishery which for me sustained my father. He was given to his grandparents as a child who had been breastfed. If he had not been able to eat the cockles eat the penupenu that they fed to him on those shores then he would not have survived. Those fisheries have been degraded over time. They were cleared out in the 1970s. It is our job to protect them and it's right that the iwi would lead that.The last thing I want to talk about is the name Waioeka. My father Haare sits between two great Waioekas: my little girl Waioeka and his grandmother Waioeka Brown the matriarch of Te Aitangi-a-Māhaki. It is an important name. It is a name that we share in the rohe and it is a name that I look forward to hearing about more in the select committee and the histories because I would say it Wai-o-weka—ha ha!Madam Speaker it's been a privilege and an honour to speak here today. Thank you for the opportunity and thank you ngā uri o Te Whakatōhea."