Speech: Reconciliation Day

On Wednesday May 25th, the Raukawa Settlement Trust hosted the Crown for a Reconciliation Day at Tokoroa’s Papa-o-Te-Aroha Marae. Minister of Treaty Settlements, Christopher Finlayson, was among a delegation of Crown MPs and officials to hear the voices of Raukawa claimants who for the first time were able to speak directly to the Crown of the hurt and injustice inflicted on their whanau and hapu as a result of Treaty of Waitangi breaches. The following speech was delivered by former Raukawa Trust Board Chairman and chair of the Raukawa Charitable Trust, George Rangitutea, concluded the occasion

Reconciliation Day Thank you to our whanau for sharing with the Crown your korero and that of your whanau, hapu and tupuna. These have been very sad and moving stories.. It is important that you the spokespeople for our claimants are allowed the chance to speak of your mamae (hurt) and your loss. It is important because, too often the reality of this hurt and suffering is lost in the sterile rooms of treaty negotiations, as deadlines and restrictions are placed on our people in order that we may progress our quest for justice. And in the negotiating room as dollar values and often intense negotiations wage, the korero, and the laments of our ancestors are not heard by the Crown, and become secondary to a process that seeks to limit compensation while focusing on tight time-frames and restrictions in order for progress to be made. Settlement negotiations are a long and expensive process, one where you our claimants and our people have empowered our Raukawa negotiators to seek compensation for that which was taken. And at times these negotiations have led to the voicing of your hurt and frustrations, towards our own. You have spoken of your frustration at being told by our negotiators that in settlement negotiations there is a different level of justice. That perhaps there is not “one law for all”.

At being told that there are very firm restrictions when negotiating settlements with the Crown. I have seen the weight carried by our negotiators who must navigate the fierce and changeable political Wellington winds in order to achieve some compensation for that which was taken. Today we have heard the impact first hand from our whanau. We have been able to see how this loss endures today. We have seen and heard that these stories are not a simple snap-shot from a by-gone time, or specific events from our shared past, but are real injustices that continue to shroud and reverberate on the lives of our people today. These are laments of loss and of injustices that through their very nature continue to impact on the lives of every generation that has followed. Raukawa were proud prosperous people with complete domain over our lands. We were self sufficient, we cared for our own. We stood united against those who sought to take that which nurtured our whanau. We were a people strong in culture and connection to all aspects of our whenua and taonga. Today we are a dispersed people. We are more likely to dominate the margins of this new society. Our people are more likely to dominate the many and varied negative social statistics of this region and this country. Too often it is our people we see outside the courthouse in this very town of Tokoroa. Raukawa have grappled with the challenges of rekindling our leadership structures, which were dismantled and almost destroyed as a result of a hunger to dispossess our people of our lands, our heritage, and the sources of our existence. Today we heard of the impact of the loss and hurt. It was delivered in a time when some in this country seek only to end “Maori grievance”. At a time when again, political hopefuls have returned to talk of “Maori privilege.” They believe Maori attempts at justice should be concluded as quickly and as cheaply as possible, if at all.

And sadly they do so before our people had even been allowed the opportunity to stand before the Crown and to share the hurt, loss and suffering. To share that it is not privilege that pervades the lives of our whanau. And to show it is not a privilege we would wish to visit, or expect to visit, on the Auckland suburbs of Epsom and Remuera where the accusations of privilege seem to be the loudest. For our people, as has been shared today, the loss and deprivations which sits at the heart of the settlement process, and which is a key part of why we are here today, is of sharing of the loss which has forever changed the lives of our people and our iwi. Politics shrouds this business - shrouds settlements. Politics is used to cower our people when we seek justice, to reduce our expectations. And then the burden of these very politics is passed to our leaders - people like our chairman and chief negotiator, Chris McKenzie who opened today’s proceedings. He and his team are tasked with coming back to our people – to explain that politics determines the extent of justice in this society we share. Politics determines that while yes - our lands were taken – there are tight limits on what will be returned. It is their job to have to explain to our people that there are restrictions and limitations on justice for Raukawa.

They must try to explain why it is that we must accept just a fraction of what was taken, if we wish to bring negotiations to an end. That we must make major concessions and compromise If we are to receive some resources to begin the lengthy and extensive job of rebuilding our structures and systems to support our whanau, and to provide some resources to help in assisting to meet the very real social, cultural and economic needs of our people. Today our people were able to share their mamae - their hurt. Today our claimant spokespeople stood before the Crown and shared some of what has been endured. Our Maori culture applauds oratory - it nurtures protocols which provide platform for those with a need speak. In sharing from our hearts there is the ability to bring some closure, and to begin reconciliation. There is opportunity to put voice to the laments and cries for justice of our tupuna, for our whanau, our tamariki and mokopuna. The chance to speak, to share directly with the Crown, allows those now silent voices who did not survive for this day, to be heard. I thank you all who came today. I thank our people for sharing a part of their stories, their journey. Raukawa will continue to do all we can to seek compensation for that which was taken. We will do so forever mindful of the very stories that you have been shared today and of the many laments and calls for justice that our people carry.

This journey is almost at an end. We will continue to strengthen and grow the structures to help ease the pain and consequence of the loss of our taonga, of the dispersion of our people, of the loss of our culture and diminishing of our language, and of the sense of injustice which has clouded our paths. And we will continue to seek the assistance and support of you, our people as we work to rebuild that which was almost destroyed by the generations of loss and exclusion suffered by the Raukawa people. Some of which was shared today. Thank you to you all, thank you to our Crown visitors. Let the words of those who have spoken today help guide us all to a fair and just outcome. - End

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