Davis Kelvin: Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDavis Kelvin: Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 24 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11226. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KELVIN DAVIS (Labour—Te Tai Tokerau): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker; ā tuatahi māku e mihi kau ana ki a koutou ngā hapū i ’hakahuangia ōu koutou ingoa nā koutou i tau mai nei ki raro i te tuanui o tēnei tō tātou Whare Te Whare o Te Motu. E Te Ariki e Tumu tēnā rā koe. Te Kahurangi a Tariana tēnā rā koe. Rau rangatira mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou nau mai haere mai whakatau mai. E Te Awa o Whanganui tēnei tētahi uri o Taumārere e mihi kau ana ki a koutou. Mōhio ana tātou ki ō tātou awa awa ka rere atu ka tae ki te moana ā kei reira ngā awa awa katoa o te motu o te ao e tūhonohono ai rātou ki a rātou. Nā reira e pēnei ana a Taumārere e honohono ana ki a koutou ki Te Awa o Whanganui.E ngā tini mate kua rongo hoki i ngā ingoa maha i ’hakahuangia i roto i Te Whare i tēnei rangi rātou i whakapau i o rātou kaha kia tae ki tēnei wā ka mihi atu ki a rātou. Kore e taea te whakahuangia i ngā ingoa katoa i te mea kua rongo ahau i te kōrero a Te Minita i te tau 1873 kua tae tētahi petihana ki tēnei Whare mai i taua wā i te tohetohe i te whawhai koutou o Te Awa. Nā reira ka nui ngā mihi atu ki a koutou ngā uri ō rātou mā kua tae ki tēnei wāhi ki te whakatutukitanga o taua moemoeā ō rātou.[Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. First of all I acknowledge you the subtribes whose names were mentioned you who have arrived here under the roof of this House of ours the House of this country. Greetings to you paramount chief Tumu; and Dame Tariana greetings. Acknowledgments leaders of a hundredfold; salutations welcome welcome. To the Whanganui River this descendant of Taumārere welcomes you. We know that when our rivers reach the ocean it is there that all of them from the country and from the world link up with one another. Taumārere is doing just that linking up with you the Whanganui River.To the many deaths—I have also heard many names mentioned in the House today those who used up a lot of energy to arrive here at this moment and I pay tribute to them. It is not possible to mention all the names because I heard the Ministerfor Treaty of Waitangi Negotiationssay that in 1873 apetition arrived at this Houseand since that time you of the river have been debating and in conflict. So there is much admiration for you the descendants of thosewhohave arrived here at this placefor the completion of that dream of yours.]This bill declares that Te Awa Tupua “is an indivisible and living whole [and comprises] the Whanganui River from the mountains to the sea incorporating all its physical and metaphysical elements.” and is a legal person with “all the rights powers duties and liabilities of a legal person.” Two things sprang to mind when I read that. First of all what on earth does metaphysical mean? And then kua rongo ahau i roto i ngā kōrero a Adrian a Marama te mana te mauri te ihi te wehi wērā āhuatanga. Mehemua kua tuhia aua kupu ki roto i te pire ā ka mōhio ēngari kia ahatia rā?[And then I heard in the contributions by Adrian and Marama references to power life principle force and fear—those aspects. If those words were written into the bill one would know—but so what?]The second issue that sprang to mind was that it is about time—I think this is the third time but it is about time and it needs to happen more—that the Māori world view is basically legitimised in legislation. To say that we are talking about a person incorporating all their physical and metaphysical elements when talking about a river just as we have spoken in this House about Te Urewera having similar mana—Te Awa o Waikato has similar mana. It is about time that this House started recognising and legitimising the Māori world view.We will all remember the time when they were building a road somewhere up north and the local hapū said “Oh there’s a taniwha there. Be careful.” Māoridom was ridiculed. So we have come a long way since that time when we were ridiculed for actually putting our point of view forward to the extent now that we are legitimising Māori concepts in law. I can imagine how outside of these walls the country will be going off: “Oh my gosh! These Māoris—what are they on about now?” Well if in our Pākehā culture and in our Christian culture we believe someone can walk on water then we can believe that Te Awa o Whanganui is a person. So it is a beautiful thing. I acknowledge the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and everyone who put all the effort into getting to this stage.I just want to read out two paragraphs that struck me from the acknowledgments of the bill. “The Crown acknowledges that through this settlement Whanganui Iwi have sought to bring all the iwi hapū and other communities of the Whanganui River together for the common purpose of upholding and protecting the mana of the Whanganui River and its health and well-being for the benefit of future generations and ultimately all of New Zealand.” The two words that hit me there were “other communities”—“Whanganui Iwi have sought to bring all the iwi hapū and other communities …”. This is not about Māori just wanting again to do stuff for ourselves. This is about New Zealand as a country including all of our communities.How can we possibly protect the mana of the river and its health and well-being for the benefit of future generations if Māori have got to do it all on our own? This is about bringing businesses into the fold—about farmers forestry the Department of Conservation Forest and Bird and all the commercial interests and recreational interests. Everybody has a role to play in ensuring the mana the mauri and the hauora of the river. And just on recreational interests it reminds me of my great-grandfather Uru Davis who happened to live in Wanganui over a century ago now. I think he even played rugby for Wanganui. He was certainly a rower and he was part of the Wanganui rowing club. So that is just another little link from myself to the Whanganui River.The Crown also acknowledges “that the approach taken by Whanganui Iwi in respect of this settlement represents significant compromise and generosity of spirit by Whanganui Iwi and promotes a collaborative inclusive approach to the Whanganui River and its future governance and management with the recognition and protection of Te Awa Tupua at its heart.” Those are great words in the acknowledgment. This is about collaboration working together and all the various communities—iwi hapū organisations everybody—coming together to protect the mana the ihi and the wehi of this great body of water.We all know that when we pepeha—I said this in the debate that we just hadon the previous bill the Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngā Pōtiki Claims Settlement Bill—we acknowledge our waka we acknowledge our maunga and we acknowledge our awa. It is part of us. It is who we are. This bill endorses that. It just outlines to the whole country how special our awa are. Be it Whanganui be it Taumārere be it wherever they are an integral part of who we are as Māori.The framework that is being spoken about I believe is fantastic and will go a long way to ensuring the mana and the mauri of the awa. The bill provides for the establishment purpose functions and powers of Te Pou Tupua; “Its purpose is to be the human face of Te Awa Tupua and to act in the name of Te Awa Tupua.” So we are going to have people who are going to have the job of making sure that this bill is enacted.I will just quickly race through in the short time that I have got left and talk about the other parts of the framework. Te Karewao—the bill establishes Te Karewao as an advisory group for Te Pou Tupua so it is advising the people who will be on Te Pou Tupua. Te Kōpuka nā Te Awa Tupua—it establishes Te Kōpuka nā Te Awa Tupua as a strategy group for Te Awa Tupua made up of not more than 17 members made up from a number of groups. Te Heke Ngahuru ki Te Awa Tupua is “to provide for the collaboration of persons with interests in the Whanganui River in order to address and advance the health and well-being …”. Te Korotete o Te Awa Tupua which is Te Awa Tupua Fund—this here is the $30 million that will be spent in order to promote the hauora mauri and mana of te awa.Again I would like to congratulate everybody who was involved in the development of this bill in particular the recognition of the Māori world view and legislating for it. This is the start. We are looking forward in the Māori Affairs Committee to hearing submissions on this bill but I do commend it to the House. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.