Sharples Pita: Te Urewera-Tūhoe Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSharples Pita: Te Urewera-Tūhoe Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 22 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14139. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Minister of Māori Affairs): He kohu he kohu tau ana tau ana. Tau tāpapa ana ki runga ki a Maungapōhatu a Hinepūkohurangi. E ko Tūhoe-Pōtiki nau mai hara mai rā nau mai.[Tis a mist tis a mist that has landed and settled. Hinepūkohurangi has settled face down upon Maungapōhatu. Behold it is Tūhoe-Pōtiki welcome welcome welcome indeed.]I am deeply honoured to welcome to the House today the sons and daughters of Maungapōhatu the children of Hinepūkohurangi and the descendants of Tūhoe-Pōtiki. Nā reira e tautoko ana ngā mihi ki a koutou e haere tinana mai ki te Whare Pāremata i tēnei rā te tīmatanga o ngā kōrero e pā ana ki te kerēme. Nā reira nau mai hara mai. Kua whai koutou i ngā mahi kua mahia e te hunga whiriwhiri i a Tāmati mā. Nā reira whakatau mai me ngā mate kua pā ki a koutou mai i te tīmatanga o tēnei pire tae noa ki tēnei rā ā tautoko ana au i ngā mihi ngā poroporoaki ki a rātou kia okioki pai rātou i Te Kaihanga. Heoi anō kua tae mai tēnā koutou nau mai hara mai. Tūhoe moumou kai moumou taonga moumou tangata ki te pō.[And so I endorse the tributes accorded to you who have arrived here in person to Parliament House today the commencement of the addresses that relate to the claim. Therefore welcome welcome. You have followed through the work carried out by the negotiators by Tāmati and the others. So welcome with the deceased related to you from the start of this bill to the present day. I endorse the tributes and eulogies to them to rest well with The Creator. So much for that. You have arrived so greetings to you welcome welcome. Tūhoe wasteful of food wasteful of treasures and wasters of men to death.]Before this claim is over the famous whakatauāki will be uttered many times in this House. It is a proverb that perfectly fits the important mahi that we are here to acknowledge today. Tūhoe moumou kai—Tūhoe renowned for generosity. Tūhoe moumou taonga—generosity that has seen the lands and people of Tūhoe become living bastions of culture and language for all Māori people. Tūhoe moumou tangata ki te pō—Tūhoe renowned for steadfast determination resilience fearlessness. Tūhoe did not sign the Treaty of Waitangi. The Crown had no footprint in the Urewera before the 1860s. However the footprint the Crown would soon leave across the lands of Tūhoe-Pōtiki was a footprint of confiscation violence and scorched earth. Critics of this Government’s Treaty settlements usually complain about the monetary cost but how can we ever put a monetary cost on lives land and livelihoods taken by force by the barrel of a gun?Every New Zealander should read the deed of settlement we are enacting today. How else can we know the history and identity of our country if we do not know the whole story? As well as those stories that make us proud to be New Zealanders we should know the stories from our nation’s past that are shocking and shameful. I am an advocate for our history Māori history being taught in schools. Kia mōhio mai ai a tauiwi he aha tēnei mea te mana whenua. Ko wai te tangata whenua? Ērā āhuatanga e pā ana ki a tātau.[So that non-Māori will understand what this thing authority over the land is about. Who are the indigenous people? Those kinds of things about us.]New Zealanders need to know about the war crimes committed by the Crown against the Tūhoe people. Banned by the United Nations Geneva Convention scorched earth is a military strategy where the assets food sources transportation communications and resources of the civilian population are destroyed. Scorched earth military tactics were used by the Crown as it waged war in Te Urewera from the 1860s onwards. Crown soldiers executed unarmed Tūhoe prisoners. Crown soldiers murdered unarmed Tūhoe civilians. Crown soldiers forced Tūhoe families out of Te Urewera and imprisoned them at Te Pūtere. Entire communities were starved. The loss of life was extensive. Those who survived returned home and found their homes burnt to the ground. These crimes took place over years—indiscriminate raupatu or land confiscation killings and scorched earth warfare. So when the critics complain about settlements like the one we are introducing to this House today I urge them to read the history before they dismiss them.I too reacted strongly when the police raids happened in Tūhoe recently like other members in this House today. I referred to it as putting race relations back 100 years and I still stand by that. We are past that stuff. We must be past that stuff if we are going to move on as a nation. Forty years ago the late Tūhoe rangatira John Te Rangiāniwaniwa Rangihau described marae as “A place of refuge a place to live our lives on our terms according to our values; a place where we live learn and cherish a heritage which is truly and always will be our own.” Today is a day for all of us to pay tribute to a tribe whose people have always sought to live their lives on their terms and to bring their children up according to their values. Tēnā koutou Tūhoe. They have always sought to keep their ancestral lands as a place in which to live to learn and to cherish a heritage that is truly and always will be owned by the sons and daughters of Tūhoe-Pōtiki—Tūhoe puna of knowledge stronghold of culture and a place of refuge for Māori language and culture. The Māori nation is indebted to the Tūhoe people. The New Zealand nation is indebted to the Tūhoe people. As a tukemata of Ngāti Kahungunu I am humbled proud and honoured to stand here on what is a milestone day for all New Zealanders.A major part of today’s milestone is the concept of matemate ā one. That lies at the heart of Tūhoe-tanga a touchstone for kinship human relations and eternal bonds which are those things that unite a whānuau a hapū a tribe. Today these are the kinds of bonds that we are hoping to rebuild. The Tūhoe settlement has always been a Te Urewera settlement. One of the key components of this settlement is the recognition of Te Urewera in her own right and with her own identity. This settlement will release Te Urewera from the Crown’s control and influence. Through this action the Crown acknowledges Ngāi Tūhoe’s unique and special relationship with her and the wāhi tapu and taonga that lie within her boundaries.In conclusion the kind of loss faced by the families of Tūhoe-Pōtiki is the kind of loss that can never be minimised in a dollar value. This kind of loss is forever felt by whānau across generations throughout an entire tribe. And yet the people of Ngāi Tūhoe are here today because they wish to settle their historical Treaty of Waitangi grievances with the Crown. So I acknowledge the sacrifice pain and injustices caused by the Crown suffered by the whānau of Te Urewera.So many are no longer with us but their sacrifice their steadfast determination and their mana will soon be recorded in the laws of this nation mai rā anō. I would like to acknowledge Minister Finlayson. One of the first settlements he began researching was this one. He went backwards and forwards as did Tāmati and he would come springing—actually springing—into my office saying: “I’ve got it. I’ve got it. I’m going to get the bloody forest back.” Ēnā momo kōrero.[Those kinds of stories.]Then the next day there were the fish hooks. Then on another day he said: “I’ve got it.” And so on. Congratulations Minister. You really pulled one off here. It is really good for us all. I also pay tribute to and thank the sons and daughters of Hinepūkohurangi for their leadership. Without their mana without their incredible generosity we would not be here today. Tūhoe moumou kai Tūhoe moumou taonga Tūhoe moumou tangata ki te pō tēnā koutou tēnā koutou kia ora tātou.[Tūhoe wasteful of food wasteful of treasures and wasters of men to death so salutations and greetings to you collectively and to us.]