“I truly feel like I’ve already said my maiden speech outside the steps of Parliament last year, for the 50th anniversary of Te Petihana.
“I dedicated [that] speech ... to my grandparents ... However, this speech today ... is dedicated to all our children.
“To the tamariki Māori who have been sitting in the back of their classroom their whole life, whakamā, waiting generations longing to learn their native tongue, to the tamariki who haven’t been to their pepeha yet, it is waiting for you with open arms.
“[The] last statements of my speech [were] ... I will leave the decision with you whether or not you jump on our waka ... because with or without you we will sail in both worlds.
“My last question at the time was to Minister Grant Robertson: ‘Aotearoa, Te Whare Pāremata, are you ready?’ A whole year later, we can say we have made it inside the House and we have arrived,” she said, audibly emotional.
Te Pāti Māori MP for Hauraki-Waikato Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke at the swearing-in ceremony earlier this month. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“We are here. We are sailing. We are navigating, just like our ancestors once did, in the biggest ocean in the world, Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa - even though some others aren’t even jumping on the Waka Kotahi.”
Dressed in a white suit with a red blouse and her dark hair down, Maipi-Clarke’s outfit for the maiden speech could be interpreted as a tribute to the Tino rangatiratanga flag, further emphasising her words.
Taking reference to the new Government’s policies, Maipi-Clark said: “I was given some advice before making it into Parliament, to not take anything personally ... Well, I can’t help but take everything personally that has been said in this Chamber.
Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke. Photo / RNZ
“In only a couple of weeks ... this Government has attacked my whole world ... Health, taiao [environment], wai [water], whenua [land], natural resources, Māori wards, reo [language], tamariki, and the right of me and you to be in this country under Te Tiriti.
“How can I not take anything personally when it feels like these policies were made about me?”
She said standing for election had “definitely” not been the plan.
“But this House kept tampering with things they shouldn’t be touching, and that’s why I left the māra [garden] to come here.”
Apart from her promise to the next generation, she also had a special message to her electorate.
“To Hauraki-Waikato, I am at your service in and outside of Parliament. I will die for you in these chambers, but I will live for you outside these four walls.
“I will be a constant sponge, soaking up and listening to our kōrero tuku iho and the needs for our people, straight from the soil.
“To every person that is watching from home... this isn’t my moment, this is yours.
“Every time you hear my voice, it will echo of my ancestors. Every time you look me in the eyes, you will see the children that survived. Over the next three years, you will see history rewrite itself without a pen.”
Maipi-Clarke is Aotearoa’s youngest MP since 1853.
