Clendon David: Ngati Manawa and Ngati Whare Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading 
Clendon David: Ngati Manawa and Ngati Whare Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:667;Page:14608] 
DAVID CLENDON (Green) 
: 
 I begin by joining other speakers in acknowledging and welcoming the presence in the House tonight of representatives of Ngati Manawa and Ngati Whare for whom this is a special night. It is another step towards seeing the wrongs of the past put right and some basis for a better future laid down. I have been in this House only a relatively short time but already I have seen a large number of bills go through this House and they cover the whole gamut of purpose and content from the profoundly important and meaningful to some bordering on the ridiculous. But I think that none of these bills are more challenging or more potentially rewarding than the settlement bills—the bills that are intended to at least partly remedy historic injustice and to provide the wherewithal for iwi and hapu to build their own cultural their social and critically their economic base so that into the future these people—our people—can create their own futures on their own terms and according to their own evolving tikanga. 
This bill is currently in one piece of legislation one quite large piece of legislation but the stated intention is that it should be divided into two at the Committee stage. That is an entirely appropriate process to deal with the claims of two peoples whose histories have been so closely intertwined and whose histories continue to be linked but who must nevertheless be given the opportunity and appropriate recognition as two distinct peoples each with their own interests and aspirations when it comes to determining the nature and the detail of the settlements that will emerge from this process. 
As an omnibus bill this is a large and complex document building on the deeds of settlements already signed by Ngati Manawa and Ngati Whare in December 2009—coming up to a year ago. The detail of the settlement proposed is equally complex trying as it does to serve the interests of the three affected parties: the two iwi and the Crown. It will require considerable work at select committee to ensure that appropriate and genuine recompense is made for the injustice that began in the 1860s and continued to the latter part of the 20th century. 
We have had this bill for only a relatively short time to read and to endeavour to understand it but it is clear even from quite a cursory reading that there is much in the detail of this bill that has the ability or at least the potential to derail the good intentions and the purpose of the bill. It is to be hoped that this detail can be resolved in a way that gives a fair settlement for only if it is honest and if it is fair can any settlement be truly final. 
It must be said that some of the land affected by this bill particularly the Whirinaki and parts of the Rangitaiki areas are of significant value to non-Maori and not least of all to conservationists. We know that often there are significant concerns and even fear when it seems that Maori will reclaim some rights to manage to protect to use and to develop land that was historically theirs and is being returned. There is often a fear that conservation values will be compromised in some way and we in the Greens will commit to perhaps mitigating or allaying some of those fears knowing as we do that kaitiakitanga is something that has a longer history in this country is more profound and has similar intentions and purpose to modern conservation. 
One of the great benefits of the processes of the Waitangi Tribunal and of the settlement documents that can emerge from that tribunal process is that it provides a forum. It provides a canvas upon which we can write the extraordinary stories of our own shared history too many of which have never before been heard except by perhaps a handful of those most closely affected. For the most part even in my lifetime non-Maori and Maori alike could grow up in New Zealand knowing the stories of European conflict struggle and change. We heard at school and in popular culture the stories from North America from Asia and from the Indian subcontinent but we heard very little of our own stories. We heard far too little about the history of our own land and the people in it. 
This has changed in recent times but there is still a long tail of ignorance about what happened here before and since European contact and that is reflected in the number of people who still fail to recognise or even refuse to believe that the Treaty and Treaty settlements have a vital part to play in our present and future well-being. 
The historical accounts set down in this bill are written in a very dry and factual manner and that is appropriate to the context and to the purpose of this document. It requires however only an ounce of imagination an ounce of empathy just the slightest experience of the land the rivers and the taonga that are being managed or returned to bring alive the true drama and the tragedy of these accounts. The sets of relationships within and between Ngati Manawa and Ngati Whare and their historic relationship with their land suffered a series of disruptions that may be directly and indirectly attributable to the arrival of Europeans the signing of the Treaty and the process of colonisation that followed on from it. As a result of war of invasion of legal and quasi legal alienation and confiscation the iwi and hapu were rendered effectively destitute. They were deprived of their possessions deprived of their ability to maintain their own economy and all too often deprived of their very lives. It is to the eternal credit of nga iwi that they persevered and maintained their commitment to finding justice for 150 years and we in the Greens will be very pleased to lend our support to the legislation that might finally make good on that justice that has been earned. Kia ora koutou.