Waitangi Day: Speech to Ngati Whatua, Orakei Marae

Honour and glory to God

Peace to the land

Goodwill to all people

Greetings to us all acknowledging Waitangi day

Here with our hosts Ngati Whatua of Orakei

At Bastion Point,

In Tamaki (Auckland)

I sincerely thank you Ngati Whatua for your warm and generous hospitality

And Invite us all to enjoy Waitangi Day.

Can I acknowledge Ngati Whatua, and thank them for their invitation to come here today.

I have come here today with a number of my colleagues from Parliament, Ministers, the council, including the deputy Mayor, and a range of people from the community to help celebrate what has been achieved and take this day to celebrate it.

Can I acknowledge the passing of Ta Hugh Kawharu. I had the opportunity to meet him and talk to him and read his writing and learn from him that you can change the path of your history. I feel it was a privilege on my part to have had that opportunity, as a politician.

Also some other people here who played a critical part in developing the way that New Zealand has come to grips with te Tiriti – my good friend Naida (Glavish), the start of the Maori Party bringing into the core of the Government of New Zealand, te ao Maori every single day.

It hasn’t been easy.

In the spirit of tough and decisive women, from Naida, Dame Tariana, Marama, who is with us here today. They never give up. Sometimes I wish they would.

And also my friend Rob Fenwick, one of many Pakeha who have over the years come to see what works for iwi and Maori, works for New Zealand.

So many of them, in fact everyone I have met who has become involved in the organisation of iwi, find deeply satisfying.

This isn’t my first time in this wharenui.  I came here last year as the Minister of Finance, not expecting to come back as the Prime Minister

Which is as one of my sons said it to me just proves that in a small country if you wait long enough you get your turn.

I have noticed that since I am no longer in charge of the putea, the number of friends I have seems to have dropped off, and my successor Steven Joyce has become a bit more popular.

The reason I wanted to come here, alongside the generous invitation, was because the memory of Bastion Point is still very much alive for many New Zealanders.

They can remember the pictures, the tension, the police and the Prime Minister of the time.

They can still remember today, in a sense more immediately because it was on TV, the substance of the grievance.

For Ngati Whatua, that history reflects that of many other iwi.  

Signing the treaty here in 1840, within a few years the protections of it started disappearing and getting very flexible.

And along the way dispossession, including I noted in a way that shows that nothing is new, 13 acres that were taken in order to install some guns in the face of the coming Russian threat.

Then, of course, the tension over Bastion Point. And isn’t it ironic at the time one of the issues was state housing.

And in recent times we have a tension of a different sort with Ngati Whatua over state housing as we set out to redevelop this whole area, which will happen over the next 10-15 years.

We have found ourselves dealing with some tough commercial negotiations, but that’s its right kind of tension compared to what was there before.

To move from Bastion Point to today is a marvellous achievement and we are here to celebrate that for the reasons that other speakers have outlined. 

Because there is a lot of negative things that go with 140-150 years of grievance, there’s the anger and frustration and shame on both sides. 

And we owe it to the leaders who came before us and who could see through that cold mist that laid over this place and Ngati Whatua.

People like Sir Hugh Kawharu, and the Hawke family, and on the political side Jim Bolger, Doug Graham and Jenny Shipley.

I can still remember being in Cabinet in 1996 where there was being a big discussion about whether to sign the Ngai Tahu settlement in the face of the election and the determination of the Prime Minister at the time to ensure that it happened as a demonstration of the direction New Zealand should take.

So we’ve signed I think something like 66 of the 82 settlements, that have ever been signed.

And one I recall, which I think explained to me the burden of leadership.

I was talking to one of the rangatira, who was mandated to agree to his iwi’s settlement, who has now passed away.

He looked a bit tired. He said to me I didn’t sleep last night at all. I went out for a walk in the middle of the night.

I said why was that?

He said because I was worried about carrying the burden of saying to my ancestors of the last 140 years, that’s enough.

And then being responsible to my descendants for that decision.

And then he said that’s why the last step is the hardest. 

Like many other iwi the settlement has had a transformative impact in their sense of direction and cohesion.

As it has here.  The story of Ngati Whatua is much more successful than most people realise.

Ngai Tahu can’t stop telling us how well they are doing.

And they are only like that because they learnt it from Waikato-Tainui.

So as we look to the 200 year anniversary of the signing of the treaty, in 2040, isn’t it great to be here at Takaparawhau (Bastion Point), on Waitangi Day celebrating the marvellous achievements of Ngati Whatua in just a short amount time.  In just a short time.

You know as well as we do how much more there is to be done.

You are going to have all these discussions around how everyone can benefit from this success. Just like a government does with a country.

About whether you are bringing everyone along and the internal differences over how things should be organised.  And in a way that’s a bigger challenge than being the victim.

What we should be celebrating today, on Waitangi Day, is what you have demonstrated and that is a group of people who had the leadership, and the courage and the vision to see that path and show it to other New Zealanders.

Because things wouldn’t have had to be that much different for us to be here on Waitangi Day not much further ahead than in 1976.

Just a few people with real courage making decisions. 

And the great thing is now that because of that achievement, the interests and success of Ngati Whatua is now intrinsically entwined with the success of New Zealand.

Economic opportunities, jobs and incomes for your children are going to depend on the success of the New Zealand economy.

The sense that people belong is going to depend as much on what the Government does as what you do.

So the step taken to make a settlement has pulled us, the crown and iwi, together.

And that’s why it’s so important to celebrate Waitangi Day this way – so that the rest of New Zealand can see that’s what’s being achieved.

Thank you.