Mihi

It's a privilege to be a Maori MP.

There's something special about the relationship between Maori Members of Parliament, a basic courtesy.

I don't want you for a moment to think that we have something non-Maori MPs don't have! It's just that we have a greater bond, because no matter how much we argue, no matter how much we differ ideologically about what our parties and we are doing, at the end of the day we are all tangata whenua and have a greater obligation to Maori collectively than to ourselves individually.

It's a privilege to be a Maori MP, a role I will never take for granted. When I first spoke in this House on February the 15th 2000 and gave my maiden speech, I was mindful of all the other Maori MPs who had come through here before me.

The 1999 general election delivered 16 Maori MPs to this House, in 2002 that number grew to 19.

There are times when I think it's tough being a Maori MP, it's at those times I consider how much tougher it must have been when there were fewer of us. And for the greatest part of this House of Representatives 150-year history that was the case.

This Anniversary has given me cause to reflect and do some research on all the Maori MPs who came before me. I couldn't rely on my memory for this detail, not because I don't have a good memory, nor because I didn't attend history lessons at school, but more because the teaching of New Zealand history was never part of the curriculum during my school days – many years ago.

During my childhood what I learnt about NZ history and the history of my tipuna I learnt from my whanau, my hapu and my iwi – Ngati Porou and Te-Aitanga-o-Hauiti.

I was lucky I grew up in Tairawhiti territory where our culture, our history is firmly entrenched in us from birth, where our leaders have long known that in order for us to survive we have to know our people and where they have come from, we have to know our language.

Four Maori seats were established by the Maori representation Act in 1867. One hundred and twenty-six years later in 1993 this number was increased to 5 by the electoral act. Nine years on from then the number of Maori seats rose to 7 – what we have today.

Maori were not allowed to stand for general seats until 1967, how many of us knew that? A sobering fact.

A special exception to this law was made for Sir James Carroll on account of his Pakeha ancestry. Sir James first became an MP in 1887 when he won the Eastern Maori seat. He held that seat for 6 years until the 1893 election when he stood for and won the European electorate of Waiapu – later to become known as Gisborne.

After the rules were revised William Rex Austin and the late Manuera Ben Riwai Couch were the first Maori to win election in general electorates, albeit electorates with Maori names – Awarua and Wairarapa in 1975.

Sobering too is the fact that in order for Maori to participate in the formal institutions of political power, in order to vote in New Zealand between1852 and the late 1860's – Maori had to be male, over 21 and land owners.

Although these qualifications on voting rights applied to Maori and non-Maori males alike, in effect it meant that few Maori were able to vote – since most land held by Maori was communally held, rather than individually owned and held in customary title, that is unregistered. Whilst unable to vote, Maori contributed to taxation revenue.

It is within this context – conflict over land ownership, estrangement from the political system, and the desire by Maori to be represented that the origins of the Maori seats lie.

Since the 1868 general election that first brought Maori MPs into existence there have been a total of 79 Maori members of parliament. Many of this number served multiple terms. Thus far a handful has served in excess of 25 years;

·Tame Parata, Southern Maori 1885-1911, 26 years
·Apirana Turupa Ngata, Eastern Maori 1905-1943, 38 years
·Eruera Tihema Tirikatene, Southern Maori, 1932-1967, 35 years
·Eruera's daughter Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan, Southern Maori 1967-1996 – 29 years and
·Koro Wetere, Western Maori, 1969-1996, 27 years

The longest serving Maori MP in the House today is my elder Winston Raymond Peters who is in his 23rd year and still going strong!

Being a Maori MP was purely male domain until 1949 when Iriaka Matiu Ratana was elected as the MP for Western Maori. She held that seat for 20 years – I can only imagine how tough it must have been for her during those 2 decades. Iriaka and Whetu overlapped for two years. Whetu in turn overlapped one term with Sandra Lee, who came into parliament in 1993, after she won Auckland Central. And that was it for our wahine until 1996.

With the first MMP election in 1996 came list seats, which opened up new possibilities and delivered more Maori women to this House.
If my calculations are right there have been a total of 12 Maori women MPs to date, over half that number is in the House today and I want to acknowledge them:

·Georgina Te Heuheu
·Donna Awatere Huata
·Georgina Beyer
·Nanaia Mahuta
·Moana Mackey
·Jill Pettis
·Metiria Turei

Until recently Tariana Turia was also a member of this grouping – a grouping she seems certain to re-join in the not too distant future.

I'm aware that this group of my colleagues have all had tough and testing times since they were elected to Parliament and often I wonder if it would have been quite so tough for them had they not been Maori.

I want to spend the rest of my allocated time this afternoon talking about one of my heroes in boyhood and role models in adulthood - Sir Apirana Turupa Ngata. Ta Apirana – an outstanding individual of the 20th century, a member of this House for 38 years.

Ta Apirana was born at Te Araroa on the East Coast on July 3 1874, thirty-four years after the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. His father, Paratene Ngata, was a storekeeper, a farmer, a Native Land Court assessor and an expert in tribal lore. His paternal great-uncle Rapata Wahawaha had led Ngati Porou troops on the side of the Crown during the wars of the 1860s – it could be said that that was Ngati Porou's first partnership with the Crown.

Ta Apirana was committed, totally, to uplifting Maori people from Pakeha domination. He was totally committed to cultural revival and strengthening, he was totally committed to developing a Maori economic base, based on farming.

Apirana attended Te Aute College and then went on to Canterbury College, where in 1894 he completed his BA, becoming the first Maori to complete a degree at a New Zealand university. Two years later he completed his LLB and became the first New Zealander, Maori or Pakeha, to complete the double degree.

Though he could have become a prosperous lawyer, Ta Apirana did not practise. Instead he threw himself into reforming the social and economic situation of his Maori people.

He developed a system of incorporation that kept the title in tribal ownership but allowed the farms to be developed as viable units; managers (sometimes Pakeha) were employed and local owners were used as farm labour and also paid a divided from any net profits.

The incorporations were bought under the control of Maori land councils in 1903 and remain with us today.

Apirana was determined to demonstrate that with skill, leadership and management, Maori could farm their land as successfully as Pakeha.

Around the same time that this was happening Ta Apirana was making his way in national affairs, particularly through this friendship with James Carroll.

He assisted Carroll with the drafting of two important pieces of legislation, both designed to allow Maori a greater say in their affairs:
·The Maori Lands Administration Act 1900 provided for the establishment of land boards, controlled by Maori, to administer the sale or lease of their land

·The Maori Councils Act 1900 provided for elected councils to undertake a number of local government and health functions – these two Acts jelled much of the work Apirana had been doing for many years.

Another legacy Ta Apirana left us with is the Maori Battalion - very relevant given last week's activities both here and abroad.

Apriana was 40 and the father of a large family when the First World War started. He could hardly have served. But he threw himself into the war effort, working with Maui Pomare and other Maori MPs to recruit Maori troops and agitating to have them grouped together – after the disaster of Gallipoli – into a Maori battalion. This way, it was calculated, they'd cement the place of Maori in mainstream New Zealand.

In 1943, Ta Apirana wrote a booklet reflecting on this theme:

I quote.

"In this war Maori asked to take his full share in the front line, and in this he has been fully indulged. Has he proved a claim to be an asset to this country? If so, he asked to be dealt with as such. An asset discovered in the crucible of war should have a value in the coming peace."

You may ask why I have dwelled on Apirana. I have dwelled on him not only because I admire his tenacity, his decorum, and his dignity but also because he created regulatory frameworks which incorporated cultural practises and have stood the test of time. He worked hard to forge genuine partnerships.

If we are serious about nationhood, the partnership must incorporate the essence of an indigenous people recognising the importance of that people in holding on to their culture, their mana, whilst moving forward in contemporary times, in testing times.

We as Maori MPs have an important part to play, not in fuelling negativity but in helping to build a nation recognising the potential of all New Zealanders, including Maori, when we see it.

I believe Ta Apirana's words and actions throughout his lifetime indicate he wanted only what was fair for Maori.

What he and other Maori MPs sought during their time in this House my Maori colleagues, sometimes-through different channels, and I continue to seek today.

Kia ora.