Bastion Point land returned

1 July 1988

Ngāti Whātua occupation of Bastion Point
Ngāti Whātua occupation of Bastion Point (Robin Morrison, Auckland War Memorial Museum, neg. RMN10-1)

The government announced that it had agreed to the Waitangi Tribunal’s recommendation that Takaparawhā (Bastion Point) on the southern shore of Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour be returned to local iwi Ngāti Whātua.

Protesters had occupied Bastion Point in early 1977 (see 5 January) after the government revealed that expensive houses would be built on former Ngāti Whātua reserve land. The reserve had been gradually reduced in size by compulsory acquisition, leaving Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei tribal group holding less than 1 ha. The protesters, under the banner of the Ōrākei Māori Action Committee, refused to leave their ancestral lands and occupied Bastion Point for 506 days.

On 25 May 1978, when the government sent in a massive force of police and army personnel to evict the occupiers, 222 protesters were arrested and their temporary meeting house, buildings and gardens were demolished. The Bastion Point occupation became one of the most famous protest actions in New Zealand history.

Ten years later the Waitangi Tribunal supported Māori claims to the land, and the government accepted this finding.

Watch Bastion Point: the untold story  (1999), from NZ On Screen:

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Anonymous

Posted: 28 Aug 2023

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