Tirikatene Rino: Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō Ngāti Kuia and Rangitāne o Wairau Claims Settlement Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō Ngāti Kuia and Rangitāne o Wairau Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 16 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17410. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. E aku rangatira o te waka oKurahaupō me kī Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō Ngāti Kuia Rangitāne tēnā koutou tēnā koutou. Whakatau mai whakatau mai whakatau mai ki te Whare Pāremata e takatū nei. Nō koutou tēnei rā. He rā hariharikoa tēnei. Nō reira rau rangatira mā huri noa i te Whare tēnā koutou tēnā koutou ā tēnā tātou katoa.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. To my leaders of theKurahaupō canoe namely of Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō Ngāti Kuia and Rangitāne greetings and salutations. Welcome welcome and welcome to Parliament House standing here in readiness. This is your day and it is a truly joyous one. Therefore to the many leaders throughout the House salutations and congratulations to you and to us all.]I am delighted to be able to speak about these three iwi as part of this final debate today. Rangitāne Ngāti Kuia and Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō are part of the wider collective of the iwi that we have all seen and will be seeing throughout the day today. In particular they are all commonly descended from their waka theKurahaupō.I first want to acknowledge that in this bill the Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō Ngāti Kuia and Rangitāne o Wairau Claims Settlement Bill the Crown will make full apology to all of these three iwi for their past dealings and for the breaches of the Crown’s obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi and all of the three iwi will receive forms of cultural commercial and financial redress which is consistent across the board with Treaty settlements.I want to focus firstly on Ngāti Kuia. Ngāti Kuia have occupied Te Tau Ihu of the South Island for many many many generations primarily at Kaituna Te Hora Te Hoiere Whangarae Whakapuaka Rangitoto and Whakatū. In the 1820s and 1830s Ngāti Kuia were invaded by tribes from the northern side of the Cook Strait. Despite being defeated in battle Ngāti Kuia still managed to hold on to portions of their tribal estates and more important managed to maintain their chiefly identity whakapapa and genealogical lines. More trouble was to arrive in the form of the New Zealand Company—an early colonial company as we have heard in previous speeches in the business of ripping off Māori from their land. Long story short—the New Zealand Company claimed to have purchased the top half of the South Island in 1839 but Ngāti Kuia were not consulted on that purchase rather the invading tribes of Ngāti Toa and their allies who held sway with the company and Crown representatives. Ngāti Kuia suffered because of this. Even a commission of inquiry failed to recognise Ngāti Kuia’s mana over certain areas and they were not allocated any shares in the Nelson Tenths. The 790 acres of reserves at Te Hoiere was insufficient for the tribe’s needs and they received a paltry ₤100 for their whole interest in the South Island—₤100—and no share in the Nelson Tenths. Hardly a great deal.By 1900 Ngāti Kuia were virtually landless. They petitioned the Crown for more land claiming that they were the poorest tribe under the heavens. The Crown tried toalleviate the problem with the South Island Landless Natives Act. The tribe shared in a share of land on Stewart Island along with other iwi and whanaunga in the South Island—not only that but at the bottom of Stewart Island. But no land titles were ever issued. The South Island Landless Natives Act caused more trouble than good. All this mamae and more the Crown will apologise for. The financial and commercial redress package totals $24 million and includes a $12 million redress in lieu of Crown licensed forests and interest that has been accruing. Ngāti Kuia will be statutorily acknowledged as having mana over certain areas of Te Tau Ihu. They will also have the right of first refusal over Crown lands that may come up on offer.I would like to turn to Rangitāne. Once again the transactions of the New Zealand Company and its purported purchase of the top half of the South Island caused Rangitāne much mamae. Like Ngāti Kuia Rangitāne maintained their associations with the land and held mana in certain areas. Their chief Ihaia Kaikōura signed the Treaty at Port Underwood and this underlies the fact that Rangitāne had their own autonomy. Rangitāne also suffered the ignominy of not being recognised in Te Tai Tapu and Nelson Tenths. The commission set up to investigate the South Island purchase offered Rangitāne ₤100 to pay off their grievance. Rangitāne also complained to the Crown that the land reserves set aside were insufficient for them to make any sort of economic living off them. The Crown’s reaction again was the South Island Landless Natives Act—a law that caused more problems than it solved.The financial redress here recognises the economic losses suffered by Rangitāne arising from the breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi by the Crown. The financial and commercial redress package totals $25 million including $12 million redress in lieu of the Crown forest lands and interest that has been accruing. The commercial redress will allow Rangitāne to have the right of first refusal for 169 years to Crown land that may become available. They will also have the right to buy and lease back certain Crown properties.Finally I want to talk to Ngāti Apa. Once again the Crown will be apologising to Ngāti Apa for breaching its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi. The Crown failed to recognise the rights of Ngāti Apa in its resolution of New Zealand Company transactions and its pre-1865 purchase of lands excluded Ngāti Apa from the Nelson and Motueka Tenths and failed to put aside enough reserve lands for Ngāti Apa. An overlay classification called a tōpuni acknowledges the spiritual cultural historical and traditional association of Ngāti Apa with certain sites of significance such as the alpine tarns in the Nelson Lakes National Park. An interesting feature of the settlement is the ability for Ngāti Apa to reconnect with their traditional eel fisheries at the Nelson Lakes. Also Ngāti Apa will have a right to access conservation land to fossick and take off by hand any sand shingle or natural material from a river bed. The financial and commercial redress is $28 million including $12 million from the Crown forest lands.The iwi of Ngāti Kuia Rangitāne and Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō suffered through the ignorance of colonial settlers and administrators who did not have a jot of interest in these three tribes. They assumed that the mana for the top half of Te Wai Pounamu lay offshore at Porirua Kāpiti Island and Ōtaki. To a certain extent that is true but it is also true that these tribes still had their own autonomy by the time the New Zealand Company turned up in 1839. Some chiefs from these tribes even signed the Treaty of Waitangi. The taniwha amongst these tribes are the transactions of the New Zealand Company that pitted Pākehā law against Māori tikanga. It has been a generation and a half for these claims to finally come to fruition and it is fair to say that the delay in settlement has cost lives. Some kaumātua and kuia who started this process back in the 1980s and 1990s are no longer with us. I know from the Rangitāne claim from the 1980s that only Richard Bradley and Judith MacDonald are still with us. It is lovely tosee Richard in full health here in the House today. The same mamae applies to the original claimants of Ngāti Kuia and Ngāti Apa as well. I particularly make mention of the late Auntie Kath Hēmi who played such a monumental role with Ngāti Apa. And I acknowledge her whānau.As we acknowledge the history and the mamae of Rangitāne Ngāti Kuia and Ngāti Apa it is time for these iwi now to strike out on their own or in alliance and forge a path that will lead to a more economic and prosperous future for themselves. I am pleased to acknowledge my own whanaunga here from Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. We have got so many connections across all of the South Island and I know that collectively working together all the iwi in Te Wai Pounamu will take over the country. With those parting comments I mihi to the three iwi and I wish them all the very best for the future. Kia ora anō tātou katoa.