Coffey Tāmati; Salesa JennyTĀMATI COFFEY (Labour): Madam Speaker thank you for allowing me the opportunity to contribute to this debate today. It is the final reading. Here in the houses of Parliament in the Banquet Hall sit many Moriori who will be listening intently to the contributions of all of the members in this House and to them can I say me rongo me rongo koutou. It has been a journey actually through this House for us but it's certainly been a very long journey for the Moriori people. Can I acknowledge the Hokotehi Moriori Trust; can I acknowledge you Māui; can I acknowledge Susan Thorpe who's back home on the island; Grace LeGros; everybody that's travelled here; everybody that can't be here; and all of your karāpuna who have been part of this process in days gone by but have passed on to the other side.The Chatham Islands are a very special place Rēkohu is a very special place and Wharekauri is a very special place. They're all the same place but actually over the generations people have fallen in love with the Chathams for lots of different reasons. Most of it is actually the environment. It's a beautiful place. The people that live there are connected to the environment—and we here on the mainland could learn a thing or two from them. They fish from the lagoon. They get their food out of there. It is their food basket. They get kahawai. They get flounder. They get mullet. They get whitebait. All of that helps to sustain them as a community and it's a beautiful thing to see. The Chatham Islanders the Moriori they live off the land. They show sustainability. They have a connection with the island through fishing and hunting and over the years things haven't always gone right. The sealers and whalers showed up back in the day and they took what they needed to take and a little bit more. Over the years as well things have been stripped from the land and stripped from the waters as well and that has also set the islands on a very different pathway. But the thing that they've got is their history. I want to acknowledge Hirawanu Tapu and actually my colleague from the Green Party Teanau Tuiono also mentioned the work of Hirawanu Tapu. From 1868 it was his job to collect Moriori history to collect the traditional stories the chants and the vocabulary and he did that by talking to the elders at the time. So this is intergenerational passing on of knowledge that has only been made possible because this very gracious man became an historian for the tribe. For that reason his work went into the Journal of the Polynesian Society back in the 1890s and in 1911 there was a book published called the Moriori People of the Chatham Islands: Their History and Traditions. Had we not have had the benefit of his work we may be in a very different situation today and we would have an imi that would be soul-searching probably with very few answers. But the fact is that history is everything and those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. So I dedicate this speech to Hirawanu Tapu but also to te imi o Rongomaiwhenua who are our Moriori whanaunga that live over there and live and breathe their life.Whilst we reach a certain point in this journey for us in the House of passing the bill of making this legislation in not too far a time from now I know that our Moriori whānau are on a journey. They are on a very big journey because whilst their history has been—I heard my colleague say wonderful" and I'm sure there were wonderful parts of it too. But actually "tragic" is also another word that springs to mind as well. They and their ancestors endured battle; many of our ancestors did. But actually in this particular story it had tragic consequences and it almost led to the decimation of a tribe. For that reason they are on a path of revival—that's what they're on—and they've grabbed it with both hands.To those people who haven't yet watched the documentary I encourage you to go on to Māori Television and to check out the Chatham Islanders TV series because there's a lot that you could learn about the good people that inhabit those islands. I encourage you to go on and watch the whole series and it will give you a snapshot but only a small snapshot of the life that they live over there and the past that they've had but also the future that they're looking forward to as well.I celebrate with the imi and I lift them up because their future's looking good. They have got a long road ahead of them but they've started right. The TV series is out but on top of that their app is also downloadable on the phone. For all those people that gapped it from the Chathams all those years ago and are living in other various other parts of Aotearoa—well to those people I say download the app whānau. You can find it on the Google store. Just have a look for the Moriori language app and you'll be able to learn a little bit as well maybe as a precedent for your eventual trip over to the Chathams and I know that they would love to see you. They are an island that also welcomes tourists and as we've all been shut down by COVID-19 so have they. So I encourage New Zealanders if you're thinking about somewhere to go over the summer period go over there. There's some Moriori whānau that will be welcoming and are looking forward to your visit.On top of their grasp for the future as I found out at lunchtime—thank you Māui—if you go to Spotify you can also check out some new music which has actually been crafted from some old music. I wanted to take a moment of the House's time—just a minute—to be able to listen to some of those old songs which have been made new again by some young talented artists. So as I play that I ask that we just take a moment to consider the beautiful rē Moriori and their waiata Moriori. If you go on to the Spotify app you'll find it on the Hokotehi Moriori Trust and the first song up is called "Hokotehi Me Rongo". I'm not sure if this has been done in the House before but anyway let's go. [Member plays song on phone] And it goes on—"Hokotehi Me Rongo"—and there is my place to finish this speech. To our Moriori imi that are here in the building that are listening from all around the country and that are listening over on Rekohu we stand next to you. We look forward to your journey we look forward to your history being recorded we look forward to more of your songs and we look forward to embracing your rē and brushing up on our own cultural capability when it comes to your language. I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The next call is a split call."