Tirikatene Rino: Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama ki Te Tau Ihu and Te Ātiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui Claims Settlement Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama ki Te Tau Ihu and Te Ātiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 16 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17423. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. E aku whanaunga Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama me Te Ātiawa whakatau mai whakatau mai whakatau mai. Whakatau mai ki te herehere i ō koutou kerēme. Nā koutou tēnei rā. He rā nui he rā whakahirahira. Hara mai nau mai ki te Whare Pāremata e takatū nei. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou ā tēnā tātou katoa.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. To my relatives Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama and Te Ātiawa welcome welcome welcome. Welcome in terms of wrapping up your claim. This is your day. It is a great and magnificent day. Welcome here to Parliament House standing in readiness. So greetings salutations and congratulations to you collectively and to us all.]Now this House turns to acknowledge the other parties involved in the story of the settlement of Te Tau Ihu: the four iwi of Ngāti Tama Ngāti Rārua Te Ātiawa and Ngāti Kōata. These four iwi were part of an invading force led by Ngati Toa that swept through Te Tau Ihu and further south.I stated earlier in my speech regarding Ngati Toa my whakapapa interest to the people of Ngāti Rārua who in the time of Niho Pikiwhara Tākere and Horomona were part of a close but also distant collective of whānau and hapū that had struck out from the far northern reaches of Te Tai Hauāuru along that stretch of Māori highway between Kāwhia and the Poutama region of northern Taranaki as Te Wherowhero and his forces settled age-old enmities with Ngati Toa. The Ngāti Kōata at Pouwewe; the Ngati Toa at Taharoa Te Maika and Rākaunui; the Ngāti Rārua at Waikawa; the Ngāti Tama at Poutama; and the Ngāti Mutunga - Te Ātiawa of Urenui Manukōrehi and Ngāmotu were all tribes drawn into the conflict with Waikato-Tainui either by choice or otherwise. The fear of reprisals from Te Wherowhero was reason enough to vacate virtually all of what we now know as the Taranaki province. My ancestors had no real choice but to throw their lot in with the heke of Ngati Toa and head to the Kāpiti region.There were many reasons for this northern alliance’s raid down south. Insults were always guaranteed to get a chief’s hackles raised and the chance to raid further south for the prized pounamu fuelled desire but it was also a time for Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama and Te Ātiawa to strike out for new lands and build new homes. For Rārua and Kōata there was no returning to their ancestral lands which were now in thepossession of a new iwi. Ngāti Tama and Te Ātiawa held on to their ancestral lands with the might of the musket behind them. They crossed the strait fought their battles won most of them and managed to hold their mana in the areas this bill now covers: Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka-a-Māui. From Whanganui Inlet right across to Wairau up through Tōtaranui and on to D’Urville Island and Wakapuaka these four tribes managed to achieve what they had started 10 years earlier.Then as we mentioned earlier today that taniwha the New Zealand Company turned up flashing its trinkets blankets and bank drafts and ended up buying the whole top half of the South Island in what has now become Te Tau Ihu which is part of the Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama ki Te Tau Ihu and Te Ātiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui Claims Settlement Bill.We must realise these land transactions occurred at a time before the Treaty Governors and native land courts. They occurred during a time when two races were still sounding out each other’s cultures. It is fair to say though that Māori were diddled out of a lot of estate by dubious land-grabbers such as the New Zealand Company. To be fair the Māori chiefs of old were not fools and when it came to the ways of trade and barter they knew what they were doing. Indeed it was a way of life for the Māori. They also had their own ways of dealing with the tribal estate and how individuals could use that piece of land and that concept was something of a lease arrangement. But with the clash of cultures there were to be inevitable differences and conflicts soon arose.Some of these iwi at the top of the south were granted reserves in tenths trusts and others were not. Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama and Te Ātiawa largely missed out on a share of tribal estate. The commission into the Te Waipounamu deed did little to alleviate the problem of the culture of the fractured and uneconomic land base for the four tribes. It is clear to me that the mamae caused by the New Zealand Company as I said is the taniwha in the story of Te Tau Ihu. If not for those dubious land practices this whole sorry saga of Te Tau Ihu might never have happened. It may not have happened there but it may have happened somewhere else. Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama and Te Ātiawa will all receive apologies from the Crown which acknowledges that its part its acts and its omissions breached the Treaty of Waitangi. The Crown will apologise for its failure to adequately protect the interests of the four tribes during the process by which land was granted for failing to provide adequate reserves in tenths reserves and for the four tribes not being able to have control over the trusts and reserves. The Crown will also apologise for its failure to provide sufficient land for the future needs of the tribes.What this bill does is it finally acknowledges every member of the aforementioned tribes not just some. This rectifies some long-held grievances of those whānau who had a right to share in tribal estates but were left off the lists of beneficiaries. It gives those families who are left out of reserves tenths and iwi trusts an opportunity to have mana and to be included in the administering of their tribal estate.It has been a long wait for these tribes. Throughout the history of these inquiries there have been many many people who have helped progress these claims to this point. Mentioning names is always a tricky slope to negotiate but we have come to the grand finale encompassing all of the iwi of Te Tau Ihu. So what I would like to do is mention the surnames of whānau in the hope that the whakapapa will bind all together. So today I mihi to these whānau and all of their uri whakatupu who are here today: Stafford Luke Joseph McDonald Hēmi Wehipeihana Bradley Rūruku Rene Hippolite Elkington Tūpaea Mason Stevens Te Miha Ward-Holmes Rōpata and many many many more whānau.It is a very proud day for me for Te Wai Pounamu for Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka and especially for me as I am very privileged to hold the tūranga of the seat of Te TaiTonga. Today we celebrate the final chapter in the historical land claims for all of Te Wai Pounamu the South Island. My grandfather Sir Eruera Tirikatene who was the MP for Southern Māori from 1932 to 1967 was no stranger to land claims. Right from his maiden speech in Parliament he was advocating for resolution of the injustices and the grievances across iwi throughout the country. My late aunt the Hon Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan continued that legacy. She gave her full support to every claim that was going on throughout Te Wai Pounamu.But let me mention those MPs who felt the force the pressure from their own people to settle their grievances and there are many. Our matua tūpuna Hōri Kerei Taiaroa; Ihaia Tainui; Tame Pārata and Taare Pārata—Hekia’s whānau; Tuiti Makitānara—McDonald’s tupuna; Tā Eruera and Whetu—my whānau; and then Tūtekawa Wyllie Maharoa Okeroa and Rahui Katene. They have all been proud members of Te Tai Tonga formerly known as Southern Māori who have been privileged to represent our whānau. On behalf of those tūpuna I salute the iwi of Ngati Toa Rangatira Te Ātiawa Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Apa ki Te Rā Tō Ngāti Kuia and Rangitāne. It is a pleasure for me to salute them all today and I wish them all the very best. Nō reira e rau rangatira mā. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.