Davis Kelvin: Te Kawerau ā Maki Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDavis Kelvin: Te Kawerau ā Maki Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 04 November 2014. Volume:694;Page:566. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KELVIN DAVIS (Labour—Te Tai Tokerau):Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Tuatahi māku ka huri ake ki a koutou o Te Kawerau ā Maki i tae mai ki raro i te tāhuhu o tēnei Whare hei rongohia i tēnei te pānuitanga tuatahi o tēnei pire. E ai ki ngā kōrero e tautokongia ngā kōrero o te whanaunga nei a Peeni he tīmatanga tēnei ehara tēnei i te otinga. Nā reira pīkaungia mai ō koutou tini mate kei runga i ō koutou pokowhiwhi utaina mai ki runga i ngā mate o konei. Te haerenga o tērā o ngā rangatira a Eru ēhara tōna haerenga he haerenga mokemoke. Ko tōku hungawai kua mate i ngā rā kua taha ake nei te pāpā o tōku hoa rangatira otirā nā runga i tōna ngākau atawhai ki wēnei kaupapa nāna i mea mai ki ahau kia haere mai ki konei hei korero ki wēnei pire hei mua i tōku hokinga atu ki te kāinga mō te nehunga o tōku hungawai. Nā reira e Eru e Tom te hungawai haere atu kourua takirua haere atu hono atu ki a rātou kua haere i mua i a kourua haere haere! Ko rātou te hunga wairua ki a rātou ko tātou ngā kanohi ora tātou ki a tātou anō huri rauna tēnā koutou.[Thank you Mr Speaker. The first thing for me is to address Te Kawerau ā Maki who have arrived here under the ridgepole of this House to hear the first reading of this bill. In line with the sentiments expressed by this relative Peeni which I endorse this is only a beginning it is not the ending. Therefore bring forth your many deaths that you bear on your shoulders and place them upon those here. The passing of that one of the esteemed elders Eru is not a lonely departure. My father-in-law father of my wife died 2 days ago but because of her kindness in matters like these she said to me to come and address these bills before returning home for the burial of my father-in-law. Therefore to you Eru and father-in-law Tom depart both of you link up with those who have gone on before you two depart farewell. Allow the spirits to be with the spirits and we the living to be with the living as well. So acknowledgments to us throughout and thank you collectively.]I just initially would like to acknowledge the people of Te Kawerau ā Maki who have arrived here to hear this the first reading of Te Kawerau ā Maki Claims Settlement Bill. I agree with my colleague and whanaunga Peeni when he says that this is just the beginning of better things for Te Kawerau ā Maki. I also ask them to bring with them the spirits of their dearly departed such as Eru Thompson who passed away yesterday. We have a saying in Māori that the spiritual walk is not a lonely walk because of the numbers who are going alongside. I just want to acknowledge that someone else who is walking that path with Eru is my father-in-law who passed away in the last couple of days. My wife knowing the importance of these bills said it was fine to go and talk to the bills—this bill and the one that follows—before heading back to Kaitāia for the funeral. So we just acknowledge all those who have passed on but we say te hunga wairua ki te hunga wairua. [The spirits with the spirits.] Those people who have passed on they will be with themselves and we who are living must return to ourselves.If the House can just bear with me I am going to read some of the evidence from Graeme Murdoch written in March 2000 around the Te Kawerau ā Maki claims. I think it actually describes the issues and the history very well in terms of why we have got to the place where we are now. I will start: “Te Kawerau ā Maki regard themselves as a distinct iwi but recognise their close genealogical connections with other tribal groupings of Kawerau descent. This applies in particular to the present day Ngāti Wai hapū of Ngāti Manuhiri Ngāti Rehua and it also applies to Ngāti Rongo hapū and Ngāti Whātua and the seldom recognised Ngāti Te Kahupara hapū of Ngāti Whātua and Te Kawerau descent. All of these tribal groupings share descent from the founding Kawerau ancestors Maki and Mataahu and their children. Te Kawerau ā Maki also treasure their special ancestral ties and associations with the Waiohua hapū who live around the shores of the Manukau Harbour. It is with them that Te Kawerau ā Maki have long-shared allegiances to the Kīngitanga and the Paimarire faith. Te Kawerau ā Maki Trust who have lodged the claim Wai 470 represent approximately 800 people yet the iwi has so often been portrayed as being extinct until recent decades. In 1988 there was a television documentary series Waka Huia and in a dramatic opening to the programme the Rev. Hone Kaa commented on this enigma stating: “Kai te tirohia e tātou ngā kōrero i tuhia e tauiwi. Kei reira e takoto ana te kōrero ko te iwi o Te Kawerau kua rite ki te moa kua mate kua ngaro. Kei konei tātou ki Te Henga.” [We are examining the stories written by foreigners. Lying amongst it is the statement that the tribe of Te Kawerau has become like the moa. It has died it has become extinct. We are here at Te Henga.]This view of Te Kawerau ā Maki as a lost tribe who have disappeared off the face of the earth has been widely held and promoted by successive authors in recent generations. It is a view which has resulted from an ignorance of the complexity of Māori whakapapa and the history in the Auckland region and also from an almost total reliance on 19th century historical chronologies produced by such authors as Percy Smith John White and George Graham. Most importantly however it is a perception resulting directly from the actions of the Crown which have left Te Kawerau ā Maki bereft of their ancestral land and without a marae or kāinga to call their own.”—and we hear without even an urupā of their own to bury their dead. “Prior to 1840 Te Kawerau ā Maki lost a significant proportion of their ancestral land through old land claims transacted on the North Shore and west Auckland and at Mahurangi. This loss intensified when the Crown allowed the pre-emptive waiver claims from 1844 to 1846 in contravention of the Crown’s sole right of pre-emption and responsibility of protection under the Treaty of Waitangi. In a further contravention of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi these transactions were legitimised by the Crown through an extremely cursory investigation in contravention of its own policies and regulations. Most importantly Te Kawerau ā Maki were not involved in the transactions or in the Crown-sponsored process which legitimised them. They had no opportunity to challenge the Crown grants made or to obtain any compensation for their loss. These actions from the Crown from 1840 to 1848 resulted in the alienation of some 30000 acres of land within the claim area alone where Te Kawerau ā Maki held or shared important ancestral interests and rights. A similar amount of land was also alienated as a result of the same process in West Auckland the heartland of Te Kawerau ā Maki iwi and also within Mahurangi area. By 1848 Te Kawerau ā Maki had lost control of all their ancestral kāinga mahinga kai and wāhi tapu around the shores of the upper Waitematā Harbour which was an integral part of their ancestral home. This massive alienation confirmed through the Crown aggregation of the surplus land subject to the pre-emptive waiver claims and was intensified as a result of the Crown purchases that followed from 1848.”The evidence then goes on through the decades and outlines the result—the consequences—of that alienation. Then we get to 1918: “Sadly Te Kawerau ā Maki kāinga Waitakere Muriwai and Kōpironui were severely impacted by the 1918 influenza epidemic and the tribe’s numbers fell again. By this time much of the west coast land that Te Kawerau ā Maki and Ngāti Te Kahupara shared an ancestral interest in had become engulfed by sand.” Basically the south head of the Kaipara Harbour is a big sandbank that has built up over millions of years and was settled on. “In 1920 the Waitematā County Council and the Crown moved to compulsorily acquire these lands for sand dune reclamation purposes. This included most of the inalienable Kōpironui reserve land that remained in Te Kawerau ā Maki ownership. As a result of these acquisitions the Te Kawerau ā Maki kāinga at Kōpironui became inaccessible. Thus by 1920 just 80 years after the arrival of the Crown and European settlement Te Kawerau ā Maki had lost the practical ability to occupy their only remaining kāinga. Several families now settled at Pūkaki and Ōrākei while others were scattered throughout the Auckland region meeting only for lifecycle events in private homes or on non-Kawerau marae.”The evidence is substantial about the effects of the Crown’s actions on Te Kawerau ā Maki. This bill goes a small way to redeeming some of the actions of the Crown. I support the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and I have to acknowledge his work in settling a number of Treaty claims. Again I would just like to acknowledge Te Kawerau ā Maki for being here to see and hear this first reading. Kia ora.Nuk Korako: Ko te hau mua—