| Red kokowai and suddenly the room fills with the movement of the sea, forests and tupuna sighing and whirling slowly above us. |
| We are calling on the government to honour the promises that they made and the contract they entered into with our tupuna. |
| I believe that this can and will be done within the confines and wairua of our tupuna. |
| She came here from Auckland, almost as though her tupuna were pulling her strings. |
| We treat the river as a tupuna, as an ancestor, and we needed to find something that would approximate that in law and uphold it. |
| Our purpose today is to come and honour the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the hopes that our matua tupuna had when they signed. |
