Tirikatene RinoRINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. E tū ana ki te tautoko i tēnei pire. Ki a koutou ngā uri o Rua Kēnana ngā uri o Maungapōhatu Te Hāhi Iharaira nau mai nau mai whakatau mai ki Te Whare Pāremata i takatū nei. He tino hōnore tēnei ki te tū ki te tautoko i tēnei tō koutou pire.[Greetings Mr Speaker. I stand to support this bill. To you the descendants of Rua Kēnana the descendants of Maungapōhatu the Church of Iharaira welcome welcome welcome to Parliament. It is a great honour to stand to support this your bill.]I am delighted and it is a privilege to stand and speak in the first reading of this bill Te Pire kia Unuhia te Hara kai Runga i a Rua Kēnana / the Rua Kēnana Pardon Bill. I want to acknowledge all the descendants of Rua Kēnana who have travelled from far and wide to be here on this occasion. I want to acknowledge all of the whānau wherever they may be who might be tuning in for this historic occasion. It's sort of hard—there are a lot of emotions that are going on at the moment and I just want to acknowledge our guests. It's been a really significant week and a significant day when I look to see the unveiling of the New Zealand Wars memorial that we've done this morning and hear the kōrero by Professor Taiarahia Black as well around it being a millennium moment and the announcement that we made today as a Government that we will be ensuring that all schools—all kura—will be teaching our New Zealand histories by the year 2022. Then to top it all off we have the first reading of this bill because if there is one person in the history of our country that should be taught in our schools—and will be taught in our schools—it is Rua Kēnana. Mr Black referred today to research and scholarship and I've really enjoyed—I went to the library and pulled out the book and read up on Rua Kēnana just myself on my own. And I'm struck by such a visionary leader that he was—a visionary leader for Tūhoe for his people of Maungapōhatu and the amazing works that he did—amazing—all grounded in scripture. A deep knowledge of scripture and then the application of that in terms of everyday life to encourage the building of settlements and thriving communities—and that's exactly what Rua Kēnana did in terms of his ministry to his people and the drawing that he had from far and wide. Also with that there came suspicion by the Pākehā as there always was. As soon as there was someone of great influence and charisma in Māoridom—particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries—unfortunately the settlers' Governments of the time saw that as a threat. We have heard the history and I want to acknowledge my tuahine the Hon Nanaia Mahuta who gave us the full beautiful history of what occurred at Maungapōhatu. But I want to focus on the great visionary that Rua Kēnana was not only in the construction of these settlements and the inspiration that he provided to his followers and to his people but the vision that he had for Tūhoe and for the whole motu. I'm really thrilled that through this bill we will be seeing it is part of helping to bring healing the restoration of the mana the pardon the acknowledgments but it's also about revitalising te hāhi Iharaira as well. So I want to acknowledge all of those wonderful works that Rua Kēnana is famous for—famous. This is a real honour to be standing here.I want to acknowledge all the work that's gone on in terms of the research in terms of the work through Te Puni Kōkiri in bringing this bill to the House and the agreement that was reached and that was signed to mark the centenary of that terrible terrible police invasion that occurred in April 1916—just over a hundred years ago these things were going on. I want to acknowledge the loss that occurred the mamae but also I'm really thrilled that even though the Pākehā Government of that day used the criminal justice system and used the laws of the time to try and put out the aspirations of Rua Kēnana and ultimately led to detrimental damage and decline for the Maungapōhatu community and its people here we are today passing legislation that will restore that mana and restore the character as has always been known but we are doing it through laws today. So that's the wonderful thing that we can do in this House of Parliament.So it has been quite a day. I am delighted that as chair of the Māori Affairs Committee we will be conducting our hearings into this bill. I certainly—not for wont to intrude—would welcome an invitation that we could travel up as a committee. I've never been up there. I'd love an invitation for our committee to come and conduct our hearings on this bill up in Maungapōhatu or wherever—or wherever. So wherever—whatever are the wishes of the hau kāinga.So this is a really momentous day. I know that as we do in these Treaty settlement speeches we're Māori so it's all about our connections and whakapapa and the like. I hail from the South and also connect up to the North on my mum's side. So I don't quite have a connection to Maungapōhatu. However I am pleased that I do have a wee kōrero here because of taku hono ki Maungapōhatu [my connection to Maungapōhatu]. Nā taku tūpuna nā Eruera Tirikātene i huaki te rori ki Maungapōhatu. Mō tēnei mahi āna ka takohatia mai e Tūhoe tētahi tokotoko ki taku tūpuna. Kei taku whānau tonu te tokotoko nei. Ko te rākau mō tēnei tokotoko nō te taiapa tonu o te kāinga o Rua Kēnana and so he tino tāonga tēnei o taku whānau.[My ancestor Eruera Tirikātene opened up the road to Maungapōhatu. For this work my grandfather was gifted a walking stick by Tūhoe. My family still have this walking stick to this day. The wood for the walking stick was from a fence post from the home of Rua Kēnana and so it is a real treasure to my family.]I want to acknowledge that when my grandfather opened the road to Maungapōhatu back in the day it was a wonderful occasion. He was very spoilt. He was given some amazing gifts. This is one of them: this wonderful tokotoko which is carved. It came from the palisades of one of Rua's whare at Maungapōhatu made from the palisades. So it's wonderful to be able to make that connection to the whānau of Rua Kēnana today. So I understand there was also a cloak and I believe that's in Te Papa for safekeeping as well. But I want to acknowledge the whānau of Rua Kēnana for those connections that we have.Also just to conclude again this is all about the restoration of character mana and reputation and pardon. I know that we've done this for Mokomoko. We've given acknowledgments for Te Kooti Rikirangi. And I'm really delighted that we are now today being able to put through this legislation for Rua Kēnana. So with that I just want to mihi again to the whānau that have travelled today. I'm certainly looking forward to further mahi that we will be doing in respect of this bill.Nō reira rau rangatira mā huri noa i tō tātou Whare tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātau katoa.[Therefore to everyone in the House thank you thank you thank you one and all.]