Emotions swirl over settlement

Professor Tom Roa says you could feel a different wairua travelling down the island with Ngāti Maniapoto, who were Parliamentbound for the final reading of their settlement with the Crown.

Hundreds of Ngāti Maniapoto members, which is based from the Kāwhia coast to Taumarunui, travelled by train to Wellington to see the Maniapoto Claims Settlement Bill be passed into law.

‘‘It was constant energy, with the wairua of the journey – especially through the King

Country when people were getting on at Te Kūiti and Taumarunui, reenergising us at every stop,’’ Roa recalled.

At Parliament yesterday, it was a different energy as well. Maniapoto is well represented in the House, with multiple ministers and other MPs having whakapapa to the iwi.

Minister Nanaia Mahuta was the chief negotiator for Maniapoto for a short stint before Labour came into Government. Sitting on the Government benches, she was in the unusual position of being able to speak from both sides. She said she took on the role as chief negotiator after finding an ad in the paper, and earning the support of former Māori Affairs Minister Koro Wētere and then Labour leader, now Treaty Negotiations Minister Andrew Little.

Wētere, who died in 2018, told her: ‘‘Yes girl, you can do it. You can do it.’’

She delivered the final speech before the House voted unanimously to pass the bill.

It had been ‘‘an honour and privilege’’ to negotiate for Maniapoto, and support its settlement in Parliament.

‘‘When I first came to Parliament, one of my objectives was to ensure that every tribe within the Tainui region could achieve settlement. We’ve just got Hauraki to go,’’ she said.

Whānau Ora Minister Peeni Henare supported Mahuta during an emotional final reading of the bill, as the public gallery erupted with waiata and haka.

Mahuta shed tears as her iwi celebrated the passing of this bill.

It is worth $165 million in financial redress, comes with an official apology from the Crown, and acknowledges in law the connection Maniapoto has to certain areas in its rohe.

Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson and National’s Shane Reti are also from Ngāti Maniapoto. National MP Todd Muller is the descendant of a soldier from the 65th Regiment. His great-great-grandfather fought against Ngāti Maniapoto. He spoke directly to Maniapoto in the House, adding his own voice to the Crown’s apology to this iwi.

‘‘I stand here with my own weight of history, reflecting on my family’s whakapapa and contribution to your collective pain,’’ he told the public gallery.

‘‘It means something for me to stand here and to be part of the special occasion of apology for the 150 years of suffering and hurt and loss – immeasurable, because it’s not a quantification in a financial sense.

‘‘It sits in someone’s soul. It sits in your souls. You’ve carried this. Yet despite that, you engaged always in good faith.’’