The Bastion Point occupation
Takaparawhau
- When
- 1977–1978
- Where
- Takaparawhau, Ōrākei · Takaparawhau
- Reach
- Several regions
Ngāti Whātua occupied their remaining ancestral land for 506 days against a government subdivision. Police and army removed them, arresting 222 people.
Ngāti Whātua o Ōrākei had given land for the founding of Auckland in 1840 and been reduced to a fraction of an acre by successive Crown takings. When the government announced high-income housing on Takaparawhau, Joe Hawke led an occupation. The eviction on 25 May 1978, televised, showed police dismantling a marae. The Waitangi Tribunal found for Ngāti Whātua in 1987 and the land was returned — the occupation’s vindication and a turning point in public opinion.
Regions affected
Sources
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Related
The Māori land march
Te Rōpū o te Matakite
Whina Cooper, aged 79, led a month-long hīkoi from Te Hāpua in the far north to Parliament under the slogan ‘not one more acre’.
Te HāpuaTe reo Māori becomes an official language
Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori
Te reo Māori gained official status and the right to be spoken in court, fifteen years after the language petition and following a Waitangi Tribunal finding that it was a taonga.
The Waikato-Tainui raupatu settlement
The Crown apologised for the invasion of the Waikato and the confiscations that followed, and returned $170 million in land and cash.
Tūrangawaewae Marae, NgāruawāhiaEva Rickard and the Raglan golf course
Land taken from Tainui Awhiro for a wartime airfield had become a golf course. Eva Rickard led an occupation of the fairway and was arrested on it.
Raglan