Tirikatene Rino: Mokomoko (Restoration of Character Mana and Reputation) Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tirikatene Rino: Mokomoko (Restoration of Character Mana and Reputation) Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 October 2012. Volume:685;Page:6194. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
Tena koe Mr Speaker. Tenakorua e ngaMinita koutou ranga mema o te Whare Paremata tena koutou. Whakatohea iwi Te whanau a Mokomoko nau mai haere mai ki roto i te Whare Paremata e takatunei. Tena koutou tena koutou a tenatatou katoa. 
[ 
Thank you Mr Speaker. Salutations to you two Ministers and indeed to the members of Parliament greetings. Welcome to the Whakatohea people and the Mokomoko family welcome to Parliament House bustling about here. Salutations to you and you collectively and to us all. 
] 
I am very privileged and proud to speak in support of this bill the Mokomoko (Restoration of Character Mana and Reputation) Bill. Mr Speaker as you know a theme of my speeches on these settlement claims that have passed through this House has been that to understand whakapapa is to understand Maori history. Today’s history lesson has been fully traversed by the honourable Minister of Maori Affairs so I will give my abridged version. Today’s history lesson is one of the most shameful in the history of our nation but more particularly it is the history of one whanau the whanauMokomoko. The settlement bills that I have spoken on in the last couple of months have concerned the settlements in Poverty Bay namely Rongowhakaata and NgaiTamanuhiri. Their story is of Te Kooti and his rebels and the start of the Hauhau wars that spread throughout the North Island in the 1860s as Te Kooti led his followers through the fastness of the Urewera central plateau and finally to the safety of the Kingitanga in Te Rohe Potae the King Country. 
Rev. Carl Völkner was a former Lutheran minister who transferred to the Anglican Church. He was stationed at Opotiki in 1861. In 1864 and 1865 Rev. Völkner reported to Governor Grey of the movements of the Hauhau within his region and in the mind of our ancestors of the old ways this was tantamount to spying. So the chiefs of that time debated Völkner’s fate and the rest as they say is history. But not so because the aftermath of the Völkner affair in 1866 is why we are here today 145 years later. On the flimsiest of circumstantial evidence—the rope used to hang Völkner was allegedly owned by Mokomoko—the chief Mokomoko was imprisoned and taken to Auckland jail. He was tried and convicted and hanged at Auckland where he was also buried. In October 1989 123 years later his koiwi were disinterred and repatriated to Waiauapa near Opotiki. Throughout this ordeal Mokomoko maintained his innocence. 
Such were the ways of our ancestors that a rangatira of the status of Mokomoko was apt to compose a death dirge a lament a waiata full of pathos. Often these waiata were composed to remind their descendants of how their death came about and how mana must always be retained. The theme of Mokomoko’s waiata is no different. As has been mentioned today its opening lines are: 
Tangohiatetauraitakukaki 
kia waiata au itaku waiata. 
As Mokomoko stood on the gallows facing his death the aforementioned words were spoken. Today the descendants of Mokomoko nga uri o Mokomoko use those prophetic words as a pepeha a tribal whanau saying to mean: “Have the strength to speak up and the truth shall not be silenced.” In his waiata Mokomoko laments how he is treated like a common criminal: 
Kei tehoritetangatatenei au kiterawake. 
Halfway through his poignant waiata composed on the gallows of Auckland jail in 1866 with the rope around his neck Mokomoko pleads to his descendants: 
He warewarenoate eke noaitekaipuke 
He ahimumuratepangamai o tewhakama. 
“Remember how I was taken on board a ship chained and in shackles. The memory of my shame burns me so deep.” Our ancestors of long ago were a proud people and at all times maintained and upheld the mana of their whanau hapu and iwi. But more important he also practised his own personal mana. In the warfare practised by our tupuna there was more honour to die in battle than to be taken alive as a slave of the victorious tribes. To be bound to be a herehere—a slave—was the highest indignity and a shame upon the family as well. So the whakama of being held captive was too much for many of our rangatira who interacted with our early justice system. Just like being held in remand or waiting for the justice system wheels to be cranking on and the process followed through—again that was a serious whakama that was inflicted upon many of our people. 
He warewarenoate eke noaitekaipuke 
He ahimumuratepangamai o tewhakama 
“Remember how I was taken on board ship chained and shackled. The memory of the shame burns me deep.” These are proud words from a shamed man who was not afraid to meet his death. Today in this debate we begin the process to ensure that Mokomoko’s descendants have the shame of their tupuna erased wiped clean and his mana reasserted. They can begin to write new waiata. He and his descendants deserve no less. So I mihi to the descendants of Mokomoko here today who have travelled all this way and I also think of my own whanau connections my cousins my many many Mokomoko cousins in Te Wai Pounamu my grand uncle—we knew him as John Bull Mokomoko—TeoneAperiraMokomoko who married my grand aunt Te Rau OriwaTregerthen Tirikatene. I know many of them are tuning in and watching this first reading today so I mihi to all of them and to all of the Mokomokowhanau throughout the motu. 
In June of 1992 the Governor-General issued a free pardon to Mokomoko. The whanauMokomoko were however concerned that the pardon was drafted without consultation with the family and did not expressly restore his character mana or reputation to him and his descendants. So as has been traversed in the korero so far there are several parts to this bill that finally make good that pardon. Among the additions the Government will acknowledge that the free pardon did not expressly restore the character mana and reputation of Mokomoko nor the character mana and reputation of his uri. 
The upholding of mana is a constant struggle in today’s world. Every day the mana of Maori is trampled upon and disrespected by ignorant New Zealanders driven by an even more ignorant Pakeha media but if there is one word that resounds through the languages of the Pacific it is the word “mana” and its meaning never changes as you paddle from island to island. It even means the same up north in Tai Tokerau as it does down in Te Wai Pounamu. Mana is authority prestige reputation—things that are important to all Polynesian cultures especially to Maori. So I commend the passage of this bill through the House. I look forward to participating in the Maori Affairs Committee and I mihi to everybody here today. Kia ora anotatou.