Horomia Parekura: Mokomoko (Restoration of Character Mana and Reputation) Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Horomia Parekura: Mokomoko (Restoration of Character Mana and Reputation) Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 October 2012. Volume:685;Page:6190. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA (Labour—Ikaroa-Rawhiti) 
: 
Tena koe. I a koutou i tae tahi mai ikonei ki te Whare Miere e tautokotia atu te mahana o te mihi nui o totatouMinitaMaori ki a koutou i tae kaha mai. E te matua e reka atu te kite i a koe i reira e noho atu tataana ki Te whanau a Mokomokona te mea e mohio atu tatou te ahuaiMataatuawhanuimotenei tino mate. No reira tena koutou. 
E tika atu te mihi atu i a ratou e kore ikonei ngameapakeke mai rano e whai atu e mau pakiri a muri a tenei tino take. Te pai o te ranginei. Kua tae mai koutou ki te wahineimonga tangata o te Whare Miere hei tuku korero ki a koutou. Ahakoangapiki ngaheke he tino papouri o te mahi o te taura. E pai ana te kipeneitonu na wai e ki kei a te Kawana te he. E mohio atu tatou ko teraano te hei roto i a koutou o te Whakatohea. E mihi kauana ki a koutou katoa ngamea e whai atu ia tau ia tau. 
E mihi kauana ki te Minita ki a ratoungamea mai rano e whawhaitonu atu motenei tino whawhai. He ataahua atu nga kupu o te waiata. I ki atu totatouMinitaMaorimo te ahua e puta a-waha te waiata mo te ahua e tae atu te rangatira a Mokomoko. He tino rangatira keterana te mea i roto iahau he aha ai e ki atu kei te Kawana te whakahuri atu itoratou mahi? He roroa atu ki te tae atu ki te wanei. No reira e mihi kauana ki nga kupu e tuku atu te koroua ki nga tangata katoa o Aotearoa kei rongo atu i te mamae ki te koi hoki i roto i a ia ahakoatutataana ki te rere haere ki te wahi mate. E mohio atu tatouahakoana wai nowhea ka tae atu teraahua ki te katoa. Koiraano te meai roto inga kupu o te waiata ra. No reira tena koutou. 
[ 
Thank you. To you collectively who have arrived here in Parliament I endorse the warm welcome extended by the Minister of Maori Affairs to you all who have worked hard to get here. To the elder it is delightful to see you sitting there close to the Mokomoko family because we all know the situation in the wider Mataatua area in regard to this great tragedy. And so I pay a tribute to you collectively.  
It is only right that we acknowledge those who are no longer here the elders from way back who rigorously pursued this matter of such significance. What a beautiful day this is. You have arrived at this place here so that members of Parliament can address you. Despite the highs and lows what the rope caused was really depressing indeed. It is fine to continue to say that the Government has erred. We all know that this error has impacted on you all of Whakatohea. I applaud you all the ones who have followed up this issue year after year.  
I commend the Minister and all those ones from way back who continued the fight over the years for this great cause. The words of the song are just so beautiful. Our Minister of Maori Affairs referred to the circumstances that led to this song and how the revered Mokomoko arrived there. That is very noble because I am thinking: why say it is up to the Government to rectify its own actions? It has taken a very long time to get to this point. So I really acknowledge the words that this elder left to all the people of New Zealand and for them to feel his hurt and the sharpness of his mind even though he was about to die. We all know that it does not matter where it is or who it is death eventually comes to us all. That song has the same message as well. So I commend you collectively. 
] 
We rise to support this bill the Mokomoko (Restoration of Character Mana and Reputation) Bill about one of the dastardly deeds enacted by the Crown. Certainly one wonders and asks the question about how real giving a pardon is in reversing the shame and the burden inflicted on this rangatira in his own right—and he was a rangatira in his own right. The soldiers and whoever else chose to take him to Auckland he was killed there and then taken home to his marae in later years. In the mid-1990s there was a pardon given. The whanau at that time and up to now have plausibly argued that it may have removed the stigma and shame from the individual the rangatira Mokomoko but certainly they have had to wear it and carry it through generations. 
Those issues are broad issues in relation to the development of Paimarire and the Kingitanga’s move not to participate in war. In that way—and we have that lesson in the Second World War—the death of Mokomoko brings to light a whole lot of other relevant issues in our history that we tend to have pushed under the carpet. Today we certainly support putting this deed to rest. It will never be put to rest because at times the Government has to pronounce its shame. It is suggested that this bill is one way of doing it. But no money or response in the sense of assets will correct what was done. In the raiding and the confiscation of lands in Mataatua this deed was a platform and leverage used to do that. History will tell you that it was thousands of acres. I have always wondered that the great people who came over with Captain Cook had such adeptness to be able to choose where to take. It is high-producing property now. Other people manage a lot of it. Thank goodness Whakatohea has control of some of it but again like with Waikato and Taranaki one wonders. 
 The schedule at the end of this bill reproduces the text of the free pardon granted to Mokomoko. The bill extends it out so that the family can be recognised in the sense of that pardon. There is a key part in there where we talk about restoring the mana and the rangatiratanga of Mokomoko. I do not think those things were ever removed. That death was inflicted on him at the hands of the Crown does not necessitate the reasoning and rationale that they were removed from him. What this bill does do is create a continuum of recognition that he was a rangatira in his own right and his leadership of his people at that time for reasons that were important is something that has to be really recognised as well as the confiscation of the land. 
The bill restores the character mana and reputation of Mokomoko and the character mana and reputation of his uri. That is the key part in this. I think that is wonderful and that is OK. But hopefully it is bigger than that—that they have a settlement as we are heading into contemporary times. It also opens the question of a whole lot of other deeds not too dissimilar to this done around the country. What do we do about them? I think that in the sense of it being an initial entry into the Crown being serious about apologising and trying to restore and redevelop its connections with those people it is something that we have to consider. 
Following his conviction and before execution Mokomoko composed the following waiata. The Minister of Maori Affairs read out the opening lines of it but I would like to labour through—excuse the pun—some of the lines not all of them because I think they are very relevant and show the depth of what happened to this great leader. It is a pronouncement of somebody who is close to death knowing full well that he is going to be set upon by and put to death under the ruling of the Governor from England. He writes this great waiata. It should resonate around this land for us to understand that people can still maintain their humility and have their rangatiratanga recognised through these lines he wrote. Picture that at the time he was close to death. He knew what was going to happen to him yet he still expressed in a fashion of any great rangatira what was going to happen to him. He said: “Kei te hori te tangata tenei au ki te raweke”—they treat me like a common thief. “Whakarewha te titiro te hukinga ia hau utiti”—with confused view I reflect on the vengeance taken and question the reason why. “He ahi mumura te panga mai o te whakama”—the memory of the shame burns within me so deep. “Te rerenga o te ra ko te Kawana kei Uropi”—with the passing of time and the Governor of Europe. “That to be taken to a place afar Right or wrong I am to die” as he had said earlier on. “Mana e ki … Hei tutakiakemo te kuaha o te pouaka”—with the closing of the lid on my box only then will I get peace and eternal rest. 
Here is somebody who knows he is being put to death for no reason whatsoever of his own doing and he still recites those words in recognition and he mihis to the people who put him down. It is indeed quite a dramatic situation. I hope we could be a lot more forgiving in contemporary times. If we are serious about nationhood the resurrection of this deed the adding of this bill in relation to Mokomoko’s killing is something we could join together and recognise. It is not just the past history or something that the Minister puts up to make everybody feel good; it is something that is the right thing to do at the right time. Let us not do it just for the sake of it. Here is a man who has passed on and who forgives the perpetrators but at the same time he expresses his view in a very clear fashion as any rangatira would do. 
I want to recognise the rangatira Mokomoko for the effort he put in. We are here today as politicians and guardians for the better of this country trying to put something right that was terribly wrong. Kia ora.