From the shores of Whangaparaoa in the south to the cliffs of Paepae o Tū in the north.

From the western tides of Kōritotī, Ōtakamaitū, through the currents of Te Awa o Hōteo, flowing on to Kīkītangiao, Hauhanganui to the Pā of Te Ārai o Tāhuhu.

The children of Manuhiri, the people of Moekaraka Waka –

Nau Mai. Haere Mai.

Ko Tamahunga te maunga

Ko Ngā Poito o te Kupenga o Toi te Huatahi te moana

Ko Ngāti Manuhiri te hapū

Ko Omaha te Marae

Mr Speaker.

It was at Omaha Marae that the peoples of Ngāti Manuhiri gathered with the Crown in May last year to sign a deed to settle their Treaty of Waitangi grievances with the Crown. Their agreement was the first settlement deed signed in the Tāmaki Makaurau region. Those actions bring us all here today to consider the Ngāti Manuhiri Claims Settlement Bill.

A key part of this settlement bill will be the official recognition of tīpuna Māori names throughout the homelands of Ngāti Manuhiri.

In recent weeks some in Auckland have been asking:

What’s in a name?

But my response is that a name, a history, a whakapapa, a heritage: is everything!

Over the years Māori heritage was gradually removed from the official identity of this and many other regions.

Māori identity renamed, replaced.

However bills such as the one we are debating today seek to restore that identity throughout our country.

Little Barrier Island was named because the explorer Captain James Cook decided that it looked like a little barrier.

Bream Tail was named because Cook’s crew caught a lot of bream fish or snapper while they were anchored nearby.

No one really knows why Goat Island got its name as no one can ever remember goats living on it.

These are names we have grown accustomed to, sometimes attached to, but they are only one side of the story of Aotearoa.

Little Barrier in English but in te reo Māori?

Te Hauturu o Toi.

The resting place of the winds, Te Hauturu o Toi, centre pou of the great net of Taramainuku.

The descendants of Taramainuku lived at Bream Tail or as they knew it, Paepae o Tū.

Goat Island in English but in te reo Māori?

Te Hawere A Maki. Taking us back to the warrior chieftain Maki, the father of Manuhiri from whom all Ngāti Manuhiri descend.

The television programme “Who Do You Think You Are” sees celebrities rediscovering their whakapapa and family trees.

For New Zealanders, the settlement of historical Treaty of Waitangi claims is our own version of “Who Do You Think You Are.” How else can we know who we are if we do not know our own names? How can we know where we are heading if we do not know where we have been?

Mr Speaker.

In a region like Auckland, with few modern Māori landmarks – it makes it even more important to ensure our ancestral Māori landmarks carry the names and heritage of the mana whenua of Tāmaki Makaurau.

If we are to share a nation together, then New Zealanders must also embrace our shared history, and our shared place names.

Based at Omaha Marae, Ngāti Manuhiri describe their ancestral interests as extending along the eastern seaboard from Whangaparāoa in the south to Paepae o Tū in the north. In the west these interests extend to the coastal range from Kōritotī and Ōtakamaitū near Arapārera, to the Hōteo River, and on to Kīkītangiao and Hauhanganui (Wellsford). They then run north east from Patumakariri near Wellsford to the east coast at Te Ārai o Tāhuhu (Te Ārai Point) and Paepae o Tū.

Mr Speaker.

Around eighteen forty Ngāti Manuhiri held customary interests over two hundred and fifty thousand acres.

By the eighteen nineties they had lost ninety per cent of their traditional lands.

Today in two thousand and twelve, with only thirteen hundred or so acres in small, multiply owned holdings:

Ngāti Manuhiri are effectively landless in their own homelands.

The Crown’s alienation of Ngāti Manuhiri lands began less than a year after the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed in eighteen forty.

It began with the forced Mahurangi and Omaha purchase.

It continued with the Crown’s individualisation and fragmentation of Ngāti Manuhiri lands.

It was consolidated by the painful and forced eviction of Ngāti Manuhiri rangatira and families from Te Hauturu-o-Toi Island.

The Crown’s breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi have been carried over many years, by generations of Ngāti Manuhiri people.

Mr Speaker.

Without the land and resources to take ownership of their own destiny, generations of Ngāti Manuhiri people’s right to determine their own economic and social wellbeing was denied.

This land loss, this landlessness, meant the right of Ngāti Manuhiri to uphold their own mana motuhake, to exercise their own rangatiratanga, was denied.

All those things lost due to the actions of the Crown can never be totally replaced.

And yet the people of Ngāti Manuhiri wish to settle their grievances with the Crown with mana, with honour.

Over the years and across generations, Ngāti Manuhiri people have led a long journey that have brought them to New Zealand’s House of Representatives. Through perseverance, conviction and leadership they have reached a strong settlement for their people.

Mr Speaker, I look forward to this bill proceeding to the Committee stage without delay.