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Takaparawhau / Bastion Point is a coastal piece of land in Ōrākei, Auckland, New Zealand, overlooking the Waitematā Harbour. The area is significant in New Zealand history as the site of protests in the late 1970s by Māori against forced land alienation by Pākehā (European settlers). Police cordon At Bastion Point (3rd of 3) (from . Accessed 31 July 2008.) Takaparawhau is now the site of the private Ōrākei Marae, the public Michael Joseph Savage Memorial, and privately owned reserve land that is accessible to the public.
On 20 March 1840, in the Manukau Harbour area where Ngāti Whātua farmed, paramount chief Apihai Te Kawau signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Ngāti Whātua sought British protection from Ngāpuhi as well as a reciprocal relationship with the Crown and the Christian Church. Soon after signing Te Tiriti, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, the primary hapū and landowner in Tāmaki Makaurau, made a tuku (strategic gift) of 3,500 acres (1,400 hectares) of land on the Waitematā Harbour to William Hobson, the new Governor of New Zealand, for the new capital. By 1859, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, who had given two further land tuku of 13,200 acres (5,342 hectares) to the Crown, had lost most of their remaining land through speculators. The 700-acre Ōrākei block was all that remained. Within a century, this too was compulsorily acquired by the Crown (apart from a cemetery).
Apihai Te Kawau spoke publicly against land sales and in order to safeguard a small amount of land in Ōrākei for future generations, and Te Kawau obtained a Crown Grant in 1869. In 1873, the Native Land Court stated that "the land shall be inalienable". A reversal of this government position came with the Validation Of Invalid Land Sales Act 1894. In 1885, the New Zealand Government built a military outpost at Bastion Point, because of its commanding strategic position overlooking the Waitematā Harbour, known as Fort Bastion. The outpost was not built on Takaparawha Point, which had earlier been taken by the Government for the same purpose. In 1886, the Crown used the Public Works Act 1882 (46 Vict No 37) to take ownership of of Bastion Point for this purpose of defence. From 1913 and 1928, the government bought most of the land that had been previously deemed inalienable. As Ranginui Walker states, this is by no means a simple case of willful dispossession: "In a long running battle to resist the state and save the land, there were eight actions in the Maori Land Court, four in the Supreme Court, two in the Court of Appeal, two in the Compensation Court, six appearances before Commissions or Committees of Inquiry, and fifteen Parliamentary Petitions. In the end the state prevailed". (1990). 9780143019459, Penguin. ISBN 9780143019459
In 1936, Ōrākei was proposed as a site for state housing by the First Labour Government, and in August a Māori delegation asked Prime Minister Savage that at least the marae on the flat foreshore where he had been ceremonially welcomed after his election should be retained by the tribe. Savage was 'somewhat fogged' by the situation and asked for reports, which were not completed when he sailed to Britain for the Coronation and Imperial Conference in 1937. The Labour state housing team John A. Lee and Frank Langstone decided that the 120 Māori living at Ōrākei were illegal squatters and had to be removed. The incensed Ōrākei Māori met Savage on his return from overseas, and he immediately reversed the decision, avoiding what could have been a political crisis. In November 1936, Lee had assured Walter Nash that the Māori would be removed without much difficulty; but they refused, and were supported by the Clergy Association, the Protestant churches, the Anglican Bishop, the Friends of Orakei and the New Zealand Observer. Robin Hyde wrote No More Dancing at Orakei. Lee obtained most of his land, but Langstone's (and the Cabinet's) decision; seen as obtaining Māori land as a park 'for white children' was reversed. Another motive for their proposal was to weaken Bill Endean's grip on Parnell, the only non-Labour seat in Auckland. Māori from the pā met Savages' body when it arrived back in Auckland in 1940.
In 1941, the Crown no longer needed Bastion Point for defence, it did not return the land to its traditional Māori owners but instead gifted it to the Auckland City Council for a reserve. (This was the last of uncommitted land at Ōrākei that Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei still hoped to get back.)
During World War II, three searchlights were housed in emplacements built at the foot of Bastion Point, and still exist today. Guns, searchlights, and an anti-submarine boom stretched to Torpedo Bay near North Head, were installed at the front of the Tamaki Yacht Club, and were later incorporated into the yacht club building.
In 1951, Māori living in Ōrākei were evicted and the houses were knocked down. A justification for this eviction was health and sanitation issues, for which the government was ultimately responsible. These issues were created by the city council earlier when a sewer line and road were built along the foreshore which blocked the flow of storm water, creating the quagmire of sanitation problems. At the same time the village at Ōkahu Bay was not connected to the city's fresh water supply. (1990). 9780143019459, Penguin. ISBN 9780143019459
The monument was dedicated before a crowd of ten thousand on 28 March 1943, with Savage's remains reinterred in a deep tunnel below the monument. The tomb is inscribed: Michael Joseph Savage, 1872–1940, He loved his fellow men.
From 1977 to 1978, the Orakei Māori Action Committee organised and maintained an occupation of the remaining Crown land. The occupation began on 5 January 1977, "Maoris in New Zealand regain Bastion Point by occupying their land, 1977–1978", Global Nonviolent Action Database, Swarthmore College two days before construction of the housing was to start, to prevent its confiscation by the Muldoon Government. The occupiers constructed a marae and housing, and grew crops. A fire in a tent on 26 September 1977 caused the death of a young girl named Joanna Hawke, the niece of protest leader Joe Hawke.
The occupation lasted for 506 days; it ended on 25 May 1978, when 800 police and personnel of the New Zealand Army forcibly removed the occupiers and destroyed the temporary buildings—including vegetable gardens and the marae. Two hundred and twenty two protesters were arrested. The occupation and the use of force to end it played a part in highlighting injustices against Māori, and the occupation became a major landmark in the history of Māori protest.
In 1988, the New Zealand Labour Government returned Takaparawhau / Bastion Point and Ōrākei Marae to Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, with compensation, as part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement process. The 1991 Ōrākei Act was passed to recognise the rights of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei under the treaty.
Joe Hawke died on 22 May 2022, aged 82 and was buried at Takaparawhau.
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