Ngāti Whātua Bastion Point protest leader Joe Hawke dies, aged 82

Sunday, 22 May 2022

Joe Hawke, who was one of the leaders of the 1977 Bastion Point protest, has died at the age of 82.

Hawke, who assisted Dame Whina Cooper as secretary of the Matakite organisation during the 1975 land march and played a leading role in the occupation of Bastion Point in 1977 to 1978, took his last breaths around 9am on Sunday – surrounded by whānau, according to his niece.

Marama Royal, who’s also chair of the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei trust board, said Hawke looked really peaceful.

”There was no pain, it looked like he was having a really good sleep”.

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He is a rangatira, there are no two ways about it, but in my eyes he’s an ariki (paramount chief), she said, his hard work will be with us forever.

“This is a totara for us, that has fallen”.

Even in his sickness and ailing moments he would always urge for the fight to continue, and for the next generation to not give up any more land, Royal said.

“We will continue to do that, even long after [I’m] gone, our mokopuna and our tamariki”.

It’s a sad day for Māoridom and it’s a sad day for Aotearoa – it was the love, aroha and humility that he had as a man that will never be forgotten, she said.

We were very blessed to have him and now the heavens are blessed to have him, Royal said

He was a member of parliament for the Labour Party from 1996 to 2002 and served several terms as a member of the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Māori Trust Board.

In 2008, Hawke received the Insignia of a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to Māori and the community.