Sharples Pita: Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru Claims Settlement Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSharples Pita: Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 12 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16646. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Minister of Māori Affairs):Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker ā tēnā tātou katoa. Ngā mihi ki a tātou e hui tahi nei ki te kawe i tēnei kaupapa i te rā nei. Me te mihi ki a rātou kua eke nei ki a tātou i tēnei rangi tēnā koutou e te mana. Te Arawa e! Te Arawa e![Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and greetings to us all. My acknowledgments to us gathered here to progress this matter today. I also acknowledge those who have arrived here amongst us today. Salutations to you collectively the august. It is Te Arawa! It is Te Arawa!]Today we gather here for the second reading of the Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru Claims Settlement Bill. I am honoured to welcome and acknowledge the people of Ngāti Rangiwewehi today Ngāti Rangiteaorere and Tapuika. Nā reira tēnā koutou katoa. These are iwi eternally bound by whakapapa for ever bound by history and today in this House finally bound by justice. We remember their tīpuna who millennia ago set off from the sands of Whenuakura. Today their journey reaches Parliament as Ngāti Rangiwewehi Tapuika and Ngāti Rangiteaorere once again work together for the future of their people.Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru is a collective representing these three iwi of Te Arawa whose members are based in and around Te Puke and Rotorua. Although they have negotiated some aspects of their settlements as part of Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru they have in fact signed separate deeds of settlement. The Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru omnibus bill gives effect to the aspects of all three deeds of settlement with the Crown between 2012 and 2013 and will settle all outstanding historical Treaty of Waitangi claims for Ngāti Rangiteaorere Ngāti Rangiwewehi and Tapuika.Ko Tiheinga te maunga ko Te Awahou me Kaikaitāhuna ngā awa ko Tarimano te marae ko Puhirua me Ōrangikāhū ngā takotoranga o ngā tipuna ko Rangiwewehi te iwi.[Tiheia is the mountain Te Awahou and Kaikaitāhuna are the rivers Tarimano is the courtyard Puhirua and Ōrangikāhū are the resting places of the ancestors and Ngāti Rangiwewehi is the tribe.]The Crown brought war to Tauranga in 1864 and after Ngāti Rangiwewehi supported their traditional allies 290000 acres of land were confiscated. All customary interests in lands were compulsorily extinguished. One hundred years later in 1966—in our lifetime—Ngāti Rangiwewehi’s land loss continued with the compulsory Crown acquisition of whenua at Ngongotahā. A pump station was built over the ancestral Taniwha Springs that remains to this day. The Crown breached the Treaty of Waitangi in its dealings with the descendants of Ngāti Rangiwewehi. Over generations lands were lost lives were taken and potential was eroded. He wai kōrikoriko nō Waiōhēua ka ū ki Mātaikōtare ka pai ki te titiro ki ngā uri o Rangiwhakaekea kia whakapakari nei i te pupuri i ngā taonga tuku iho o Ngāti Rangiteaorere ka ora e.[The glittering waters of Waiōhēua extend to Mātaikōtare and it is wonderful to see the descendants of Rangiwhakaekeau. Be resolute in holding on to the heirlooms of Ngāti Rangiteaorere. They will live on.]The 1800s saw Ngāti Rangiteaorere drawn into the New Zealand Wars with huge consequences. The Native Land Court’s land policies left the Crown with lands that were flat fertile and easily accessible by road. Ngāti Rangiteaorere were left with lands that were fragmented steep inaccessible and uneconomic. Fifty years ago the Tikitere geothermal field prized by generations of Ngāti Rangiteaorere for its medicinal spiritual and economic value was taken by the Crown under the Geothermal Energy Act 1953—the compulsory takeover of an ancestral wāhi tapu.Mai i ngā pae maunga i Te Toro Puke e tū kau mai rā i te awa e rere mai ana waihoa te whenua ko te takapū o taku tamaiti ā ka tahuri.[From the mountain range to the hillock standing there in the distance to the river that flows towards me leave well alone the land which is the abdomen of my son. I end here.]“From the mountain range in the distance to the hills that stand before me to the river that flows towards me—Tapuika.” This ancient claim was made by the tipuna chieftain Tia aboard the Te Arawa waka. However the arrival of the Crown in this rohe soon brought war to Tia’s people and his ancient claim along with the Treaty of Waitangi was broken. A series of toa claims made by others of Tapuika ancestral lands culminated in the Crown land alienation policies which were akin to raupatu punishing Tapuika for taking up arms against the Crown in the 1860s. The land loss was widespread and severe.Tapuika’s loss would lead to the alienation of Tia’s people from their ancestral lands. Deprived of economic spiritual and cultural autonomy generations of Tapuika families have suffered incalculable loss. All these things the families of Ngāti Rangiwewehi Ngāti Rangiteaorere and Tapuika have lost have suffered can never be replaced and yet these families wish to settle their grievances with the Crown with mana and with dignity. They honour us all with their incredible generosity.Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru has enabled all three iwi to collectively negotiate with the Crown and to also work with each other on their individual claims. The spirit of whanaungatanga and rangatiratanga demonstrated by Ngāti Rangiteaorere Ngāti Rangiwewehi and Tapuika will enable the resolution of claims across these three tribes. This collective approach is already being replicated across Aotearoa. I thank Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru for leading by example.So many of those who have made this day possible are no longer with us but with this bill’s passing their mahi and their mana will be for ever honoured in the laws of Aotearoa New Zealand. Today is a day to remember those who have passed on to resolve grievances with those who are with us today and to plan for those yet to be born. From the sacred marae of Taputapuātea to the beating hearts of Te Arawa to the New Zealand House of Representatives Te Arawa e! Te Arawa e! Thank you.