"Haere ki o tatou tupuna ....."

Tena koe Roger.

So.! .You have left . Your life well lived and done, your legacy your whanau, who will carry on those things you have passed to them , often by you just being who and what you were.

We cannot teach attitudes, they are caught..- and you left some great moments .

But before you go - a quiet moment to reflect on things you did that few may know of.

Of a small window in a moment of time, that made a huge impact , that will go down in history, for reasons as diverse as those who were present.

Can we ever forget that moment in the court? We caught our breath and shrunk - you tried to hide behind the centre pole as the Peter's voice boomed in a overcrowded court room, embellishing those words that were follow us where ever we went, from that point on.

We did not expect it - it was unplanned and we sat like statues of stone, not daring to look at each other - the room went silent and we were as stunned as everyone else was, but silent in support of each other. We did not have to speak .

Yet, we were so vulnerable- in a strange paddock , surrounded by the herd of marauding predators seeking access to the benefits of the fish inside our 200 mile zone. We had tried everything to be heard but it was you who played a key role in a strategy to be heard, that brought us to the court room. We were so far from home.

It was you who 'went fishing' as lawyers from NZ, tried to make contact with you to agree with the national will, but you went fishing..... we had heard it all before. The cray boom the paua boom, the introduction of the QMS, this was not a new to us.

We had been doing this since the 1960's .

Yet here we were, on our own ,so far from home, fighting for the fish.
Few understood , many could not keep up and most had no idea what it was all about, and still don't.

You lead us with Rodney at the helm- held the space , in a room overcrowded with busy people. Little did we know it was to become an historical event as decisions were made, policies and Acts put in place that were to change the social and cultural structure of the nation. And then you went back home - fishing - or so we thought. ! It must have been freezing waiting all day on that balcony for us to come home.

You played such an important role, and carried the message and mana of your father and mother, our Kaumatua and Kuia.

You so believed and wanted what we all wanted.

The words of your father in the Tribunal hearings, leave a public legacy for us all.

" I am Charles Henry Preece, and I am 75 year old, my mother was part Moriori and part Maori. My father was pakeha from London. my mother never spoke Moriori only Maori. They are both buried at Manukau. But we very definetly got on very well with everyone back then. There was no animosity between Maori and Moriori. The fact that Maori had come from Taranaki and taken over Moriori was never discussed. People just accepted that the Maori had conquered the Moriori. That was in the past, we just got on with our lives. When they say these things I feel they are talking about my wife. it upsets me. I know -- I am the oldest Moriori on the Islands..... We never lived as tribes, we lived as one people...., As far as I am concerned i am just another Chatham Islander. .......And me with more Moriori in me then most other people. ...I am a Chatham Islander. I have been that way all my life and I will stay that way. I was born here and I will stay here. "

In a time when most of our fish have gone offshore, families are leaving the islands for work and the economy has sunk through the floor, the words provide a message of hope for a better future.

Moe mai, e te Rangatira, moe mai ki to moenga roa, Haere Haere Haere