Turia Tariana: Porirua City Council (Pauatahanui Burial Ground) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Turia Tariana: Porirua City Council (Pauatahanui Burial Ground) Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:642;Page:12458] 
TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tena tatou katoa. I am proud to speak to the Porirua City Council (Pauatahanui Burial Ground) Bill and to honour my whakapapa relationship to Ngati Toa Rangatira through the connections that we as Ngati Apa and Ngati Rangiwhakaturia have. Our hapu occupies the lands around the Whangaehu Marae on the lower reaches of the Whangaehu River which also forms the boundary of the rohe of Ngati Toa. Te Rangihaeata Te Rauparaha’s nephew consolidated this relationship by marrying Te Rangi Pikinga of Ngati Apa so our connections are ever strong. 
I am proud too that the Maori Party’s call at the first reading of this bill to enable an opportunity for the full story to be heard has been recognised in the select committee process. At the first reading debate my colleague Te Ururoa Flavell raised our concerns that this bill could be debated in this House with absolutely no mention of the mana whenua Ngati Toa Rangatira. They are such simple questions: whose story is being told whose voices are being heard and from whose perspective are the memories shared? Similarly who is missing from the record? The Maori Party will always stand to ensure that the independent view of tangata whenua is able to be heard in every debate. It is of course a great disappointment that we have to even raise that point. But as the first reading of this bill demonstrated it is still unfortunately the case that legislation makes it to this House without bearing the distinctive contribution of tangata whenua. 
Today is Ngati Toa’s day. Indeed it has been a very significant month for Ngati Toa. Just 3 weeks ago on 25 September Ngati Toa and the Crown signed an agreement to negotiate their claim on behalf of the iwi of about 5000 registered members. In speaking to the negotiation process executive director Matiu Rei said: “The scale of our claims and the serious nature of the Crown’s breaches mean that the Ngati Toa claim is a complex one. Ngati Toa was subjected to a co-ordinated military and political campaign by the Crown including the kidnapping and exile of our leaders the loss of life through military action and public executions as well as land sales under duress.” 
Despite the omission of Ngati Toa from the first reading of this bill this history forms an absolutely essential context for this bill to vest the Pauatahanui Burial Ground in the Porirua City Council. Although the cemetery is now of special significance to the Hollis Stace family and the descendants of early pioneers buried there it is also the site of land that was alienated from Ngati Toa by Crown coercion in 1847. The history of the Hollis Stace family’s association to the land is a remarkable one dating back to 1856. But inevitably the question must arise: what is the history of this land prior to it being purchased from the New Zealand Company in 1856? 
I want to pay tribute to Ngati Toa for sharing their precious history with the Local Government and Environment Committee—a history in which Ngati Toa bore the full assault of a state of martial law and suffered the consequences of military attack by British Imperial forces in which lives were lost. It is a shameful history that this House has a right to hear lest we forget. The telling of their story is now of course stained with history repeating itself given the events of recent days. Ngati Toa recount their experiences in their submission. They tell how Te Rangihaeata was forced into exile his supporters were captured by the Crown and publicly executed by hanging while others were banished to Tasmania to be held as prisoners until their deaths. These were innocent people who were never given the opportunity for a trial. Justice was denied. 
It was at the time immediately preceding the Hollis Stace purchase of this famous pa site that Te Rauparaha was kidnapped by Governor Grey and held captive for 18 months again without being charged with an offence. While the leader was held captive Grey held Ngati Toa Rangatira to ransom by demanding their lands in exchange for their leader. 
The Porirua City Council (Pauatahanui Burial Ground) Bill could have been another episode of writing Maori out of history but we in the Maori Party are not prepared to let that happen. Ngati Toa Rangatira will never let that happen. So they came to the table and reminded the select committee that Matai-taua Pa which is now the site of the burial ground is what they describe as being “pivotal to Ngati Toa’s wider Treaty claim. It represents the last bastion of Ngati Toa resistance to the British Crown.” 
In the ultimate manifestation of manaakitanga Ngati Toa have the generosity to support this bill recognising that it will provide for the ongoing protection and acknowledgement of important cultural heritage. They speak of the urupa as a “sacred site to Pakeha as the final resting place of many early settlers to the Porirua district”. This was a point that most of the 14 submitters reiterated many of them being direct descendants of the settlers who are buried in the cemetery that is at the heart of this bill. 
The Pauatahanui Residents Association brought together these concerns by describing the unique value this bill offered in establishing procedures that would enhance genealogical research and provide for retrieval and storage of records and in doing so preserve and maintain the history and heritage of this place. But as Ngati Toa identified and indeed as the Porirua City Council and other submitters confirmed the site at the centre of this bill is regarded as wahi tapu to Ngati Toa. Such a site of special significance is considered to be so by virtue of its history as the pa of Te Rangihaeata—Matai-taua—and because of its significance to other iwi that predated the arrival of Ngati Toa. 
The requests from Ngati Toa Rangatira are humbling in their simplicity. They asked that if signage were to be developed for the site that it be done with the full knowledge and consent of Ngati Toa. They want to know that any earthworks and repairs made to the burial ground will be discussed in consultation with Ngati Toa. They are happy to confirm council ownership by means of this legislation in order to ensure that the burial ground is properly cared for and maintained in perpetuity. Most important of all they seek to support the possibility for both the Maori and the Pakeha cultural heritage of this site to be preserved by means of this bill. 
We too in the Maori Party want to ensure that the protection and management of the burial ground serves to treasure the opportunity to give expression to the unique histories that have shaped this sacred site. We want to pay tribute to all of those who have spent considerable time maintaining this burial site on behalf of the descendants of those people buried there. We will therefore support this bill. 
Bill read a second time.