Tirikatene Rino: Ngati Toa Rangatira Claims Settlement Bill Haka Ka Mate Attribution Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Ngati Toa Rangatira Claims Settlement Bill Haka Ka Mate Attribution Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 16 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17395. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Ngati Toa Rangatira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa. E aku mātua e aku whanaunga whakatau mai whakatau mai whakatau mai. Whakatau mai ki te Whare Paremata e takatū nei. Āpiti hono tātai hono ko te hunga wairua ki a rātou āpiti hono tātai hono ko te hunga ora ki a tātou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou ā tēnā tātou katoa.[Greetings Mr Deputy Speaker. Greetings to you Ngati Toa Rangatira acknowledgments and salutations to you all. Welcome welcome and welcome to my elders and relatives. Welcome to Parliament House standing here in readiness. The lines of the spirits are joined to allow them to rest there among their own while the lines that join us the living allow us to live here among ourselves. And so salutations greetings and acknowledgments to you and to us all.]Let me start with a well-known pepeha of Ngati Toa. Ko Ngati Toa te tuatahi ko Ngāti Kōata te tuarua ko Ngāti Rārua te tuatoru.[Ngati Toa is first Ngāti Kōata is second and Ngāti Rārua is third.]This pepeha is to denote the mana of Ngati Toa and their two allies of Kōata and Rārua. It is a historical link to the way things were in the past when Ngati Toa had to explain to the Crown their relationship to the land and hapū of Te Tau Ihu. We all knowthat they have all advanced to be the iwi that they are today but that is the historical link.With that in mind let me declare my own personal stake in the history of Ngati Toa. Anyone who knows my family’s history will know me as a Poutini Ngāi Tahu but not many people know the connection to Ngati Toa through my ancestor Niho who was a chief of Ngāti Rārua and who along with the other chiefs of the invading alliance of Ngati Toa Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama and Te Ātiawa crossed Raukawa Moana and fought with local Ngāti Kuia Ngāti Apa and Rangitāne. From Te Tau Ihu my ancestor pushed through the West Coast making war and searching for the highly prized pounamu.My Kai Tahu ancestor Tūhuru was a clever man and in an effort to protect his people he took the prudent step of negotiating a peace deal with the Ngāti Rārua by offering his daughter Nihorere as a wife for Niho. This was accepted and so Tūhuru and his family spent 5 years at Tai Tapu as guests of Niho and the Ngāti Rārua. The particular branch of the union of Tūhuru’s daughter Nihorere to Niho are known as a takawaenga family which in times of raru was used to remind the tribes of Poutini Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Rārua of that shared history.If 6 February 1840 is this nation’s birth date then the events of 1839 must surely be the conception and gestation period of our country. Before the Treaty and Governor Hobson New Zealand was a lawless land with no real civil law and definitely no land courts. The country and its tangata whenua were susceptible to unscrupulous land deals. The arrival of the New Zealand Company in 1839 is the crux of the troubles in Te Tau Ihu.In 1839 Ngati Toa were a powerful tribe situated on the northern side of Raukawa Moana who also had interests in Te Tau Ihu. Ngati Toa signed the Kāpiti deed which purportedly gave up their interests in 20 million acres between Taranaki and North Canterbury. The oral translation of the English deed did not convey its meaning and effect. More misunderstandings and shady deals were to occur: 1843 and the Wairau affair Te Rangihaeta’s rebellion in the Hutt Valley in 1845 and eventual exile to Poroutāwhao and Te Rauparaha’s illegal arrest and detention in 1846.The arrest of Te Rauparaha was a master stroke for Governor Grey and the Crown. It was totally illegal and on trumped-up charges. Grey used the detention of Te Rauparaha as leverage to wrest land from the Ngati Toa estate. The remaining chiefs of Ngati Toa had little option but to offer up land at Porirua and Wairau and to have reserves set aside. Ngati Toa had interests at Port Nicholson Wairau and Whakatū but their interests were not acknowledged in the likes of the Wellington Tenths and the Nelson Tenths. There were further more modern-day mamae to add to the list of grievances. In 1948 and 1960 the Public Works Act stole hundreds of acres of land from families to build housing. Some of that land has never been used but is now tied up in the Crown’s hands.In the Ngati Toa Rangatira Claims Settlement Bill the Crown will apologise to Ngati Toa for its failure to uphold the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi apologise for Te Rauparaha’s illegal detention and apologise for pressuring other chiefs of Ngati Toa to sign away the land in return for Te Rauparaha’s release. It will also apologise for failing to ensure that Ngati Toa retained sufficient land for their future needs. There are deeds of recognition and overlay classifications acknowledging areas of significance and association: Kāpiti Island The Brothers Thoms Rock and the Wairau Lagoon to name a few. There is of course also cultural commercial and financial redress.There are many people who have helped to advance this claim to where we are today but I would particularly like to acknowledge Tiratū Williams who is the last of the original claimants for Ngati Toa and who I understand is in the gallery today.I would like to move on to the haka. The Haka Ka Mate Attribution Bill has been put in place so as to acknowledge Te Rauparaha the composer of the haka and Ngati Toa’s guardianship or kaitiakitanga of this taonga. The bill sets guidelines on how this haka can and should be used in a commercial and non-commercial world.This haka Ka Mate is by default this country’s national haka. It is the first haka to be taught to children of school age. It is the first haka I was taught. I remember when we first moved up from the South Island to Wellington my father taking me out to Takapūwāhia where Mark Metekīngi taught me as a 5-year-old. It is the haka of our national rugby team and of our Olympic and Commonwealth Games representatives. Other national sporting teams have used it at an international level. The haka has reverberated around the battlefields of the world not just during the Māori civil and land wars but also in places like Gallipoli and North Africa during World War I and World War II and even in more modern theatres such as Iraq and Afghanistan. It has been performed by ordinary Kiwis doing their OEs sometimes in a drunken manner and it has even been performed—poorly I might say—by British pop stars.But when I think of this mighty haka and I think of my whanaunga of Ngati Toa what I think about is running up and down the basketball court with Taku Pārai and Donal Wineera waiting for that pass so I could get the easy layup. I will tell you it rarely came. It is hard to get a ball off a Ngati Toa hoopster even if you are on their team.This haka also reminds me of one of Ngati Toa’s greatest living exponents of the haka none other than Uncle Nelson Solomon—surely one of this country’s greatest storytellers truthful or not. Kia ora Uncle. Uncle Nelson told me one night after a few drinks in Nelson of his exploits on the basketball court and how he and John Arthur were the best point and shooting guard combo that Ngati Toa had ever seen. He then reminded me of it again on the drive from Whakatū over to Waikawa just to reinforce the point. When I think of the haka I am reminded of the basketball mates I ran with back in the day whether we were on the same team or playing against each other. I think of names such as Pārai Wineera HippoliteSolomon Kimi and Parata. Let us not forget the Katenes and I acknowledge Rahui Katene—it is wonderful that you are here—and the Arthurs the Kohe Loves and the Metekīngis. I would like to thank the many families of Ngati Toa that allowed Taku and Donal and some of the other whānau to join the Rātana Church even if it was only for one midweek basketball game.When I think of these wonderful people I think about the everyday use of the haka—how it is performed every day by Ngati Toa at births deaths marriages and 21st birthdays. If there is a meeting of Ngati Toa anywhere in this country or anywhere in the world you can guarantee there will be a stirring performance of Te Rauparaha’s famous composition at the end of the speeches. Today the descendants of Te Rauparaha and Ngati Toa are here and once the debate is finished I am sure we will be treated to a very special extended version of their and this country’s most famous haka. I commend these bills to the House. Kia ora anō tātou.