Wall Louisa: Obituaries — Hon Parekura HoromiaText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWall Louisa: Obituaries — Hon Parekura Horomia[Sitting date: 07 May 2013. Volume:689;Page:9619. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa):Moe mai e Pare i roto i te arohaTakoto mai i runga i tō atamira.Ka heke i aku kamoNgā wai roimata.Auē e Pare e tuohu atu nei.Ngā mihi aroha e ngā whānau o Parekura Desmond Wallace Tūrei Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti Ngāti Kahungunu Ngati Porou Ngāi Tahu. Rau rangatira mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[Sleep the loving sleep PareLie there upon your stage.Falling from eyesAre the tears.Alas Pare I stand with my head bowed before you.Fond regards to you the families of Parekura Desmond Wallace Tūrei descendants of Hauiti and tribes of Kahungunu Porou and Tahu. To you the leaders of a hundredfold I salute acknowledge and greet you and us all collectively.]Feed the whānau; feed the children. I was at the marae on Tuesday night and they were the instructions. They were the instructions that Wayne Ngata and the whānau there were given by Parekura Horomia. I want to say to the whānau that he would be so proud because you fed the whānau and you fed the children. So we want to say thank you for your hospitality; thank you for the crayfish and the paua and all that beautiful food that where I come from Waitahanui is our hākari food but we had that for every meal.I was really privileged in this term to sit next to Pare at caucus. Parekura ended up being a mentor for me in many ways. Rather than telling me to shut up like he did to Moana Mackey he would just grab my arm and tell me to calm down. I also sat next to Parekura at the Māori Affairs Committee. I want to mihi to Tau Henare who is the chair of our Māori Affairs Committee but in fact Pare was the chief. That was the reality. Any manuhiri who came into our select committee it was Pare who did the mihi. Not only did Pare boss Hone Harawira around but Rino Tirikatene always had to do the karakia and Te Ururoa Flavell got bossed around. Basically he was the rangatira of that group who made us all safe. It did not matter where we went Parekura steered our waka in a very straight direction and we all knew what the kawa was what the protocols were.We went over to Australia as a select committee at the end of last year. We went over to find out from the Aussies how we could better help our indigenous people. The irony of that is that what we found out from our experience in Australia was that in fact the best way we can help our whānau here is to make sure our babies our tamariki our mokopuna speak the Reo and know our tikanga. So when I think about Parekura actually I think about a man whose policies in fact are going to ensure that our Māori identity mai rānō will continue for ever and ever. That is the legacy that I see in Parekura in establishing Māori Television and iwi radio. It actually was about fundamentally ingraining into our babies the opportunity to be Māori. So the “Feed the whānau; feed the children.” instruction was actually to house the children clothe the children make sure our children can get to the doctor. I think that the Māori Affairs Committee and the inquiry it is doing is going to be Pare’s legacy. So it is a challenge to this House how we do that.Parekura for me was also a kaitohe mana wahine. Pākehās would call it a feminist. He was a feminist. At the Māori Women’s Welfare League hui last year in Blenheim Parekura spoke. He spoke about being proud to be part of the league. For me the highlight of his kōrero in terms of recounting about all these beautiful Māori women who had been part of his life was also saying that Māori women should be able to speak on the marae. I thought that was pretty brave and bold of Pare but actually for him it was all about the Reo and it was all about the tikanga. So if our wāhine have the Reo and they have the tikanga then why should they not? That is one of the challenges I think he has left for Māoridom. I think that is the legacy that Parekura again has created for all of us. Parekura loved Hukarere Girls’ College. I think one of the last legacies that we all have to now fulfil is about the chapel. It was spoken about a lot during his tangi that that was one of the things he did not achieve. I think for us here in the House the question is how we can help that reality come to fruition. I know that for Parekura it burned in him the responsibility he had to help shape young women leaders of the future.Parekura was our matua but more than that he was our kaitiaki. For me Parekura was the balance. He was the balance within te Rōpū Reipa. He was the balance within caucus. Parekura and his leadership—the fact that he could go on to any marae in the country. I was privileged last year with Trevor Mallard actually to go to Waimārama Taumāunu’s mother’s tangi. We were part of a crew who turned up outside of the hours where you normally take manuhiri but with Pare we could go anywhere at any time. So we went on we paid our respects. We got back to the hotel at midnight. We were up at 6. We were there in the kitchen. It was a real insight into the work that Parekura did and he did it because for him whānau was so important. That is why he was the tangi man. He made it back to every tangi because for him that is why he was here. That was why he was here.I just want to highlight what the Rev. Hirini Kaa said when he spoke about Parekura. He talked about him being a pononga—a pononga a true servant of the people. You do not get politicians like Parekura today. Most of us go to events so we can get in the paper. Most of us go to events so that people know what we are doing. Parekura did not want that recognition. He did not need that recognition. His recognition was in his whānau knowing that he was there for them with them at all times. That is something that I wanted to bring into my political career. It was about relationships. It was about whanaungatanga about knowing why you are in this place and not becoming disconnected from the people you are here to serve.So I pay tribute to Parekura who is a mentor for me. He is somebody whom I will carry in my heart for my entire political career and he is somebody whom I think from what we have heard today and what we heard over the last week on the marae we are so proud of whom we love so much. I think that is the enduring legacy of Parekura: his love and the love that we all had for him. I guess the challenge is how we translate that into the work that we do. It is something that I know I am thinking about it is something that my colleagues are thinking about and it is something that provides some guidance into the future. Moe mai e te rangatira Parekura. Moe mai moe mai moe mai. Kia ora.[Rest there Parekura the leader. Sleep sleep and slumber there. Thank you.]