Dawn service marks 40 years since eviction at Bastion Point

Friday, 25 May 2018

Ngāti Whātua occupied Bastion Point for more than a year.

On May 25, 1978, the end of what is regarded as one of the biggest landmarks in the history of Māori protest took place - 40 years on many protesters have returned to where it all took place, Bastion Point.

A dawn service was held Friday morning in the place where the protest took place and it was a chance for many who were involved in the protest to share memories and a waiata or two.

In 1977 hundreds of people occupied the land of Bastion Point, or Takaparawhau for a protest that lasted 506 days before they were forcibly removed by the police and army.

The occupation took place in protest of the Crown's plans to create a housing subdivision on former iwi reserve land.

* Flashback: Final stand of Ngati Whatua begins at Bastion Point

* Commemorating Bastion Point eviction 40 years later

Bastion Point was given to the crown by Ngāti Whātua as a defence site during the Russian scare of 1885, but when the army decided they had no more use for it in 1941, the crown did not give the land back to the iwi.

The plan to create luxury houses on the iwi's ancestral land was the last straw for Ngāti Whātua so they organised a peaceful occupation to prevent the Muldoon government from building on it.

After more than a year of occupation then-prime minister Robert Muldoon ordered a force of 800 police and army personnel to be brought in, resulting in the eviction and arrest of 222 people as well as the destruction of their temporary buildings and crops.

Bastion Point has become a symbol of Māori land issues and was the catalyst behind the creation of the Waitangi Tribunal.

To commemorate the 40-year anniversary of the evictions, Ngāti Whātua held what was described by a Ngāti Whātua spokeswoman as 'a massive powhiri.

'We held a dawn service this morning [at Bastion Point], we have events happening here all through the day as well as a musical performance at Spark Arena tonight with a lot of Māori musicians, many of whom were there during the protest. It's a day for those involved to share their reflections.'

The Bastion Point land was returned to Ngāti Whātua as part of the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process in the 1980s.