40 years on from the Bastion Point occupation: Where are we now?
Thursday, 5 January 2017
On January 5, 1977, a small group of Maori pitched tents on top of a hill. It was the first day of what would become the 506-day occupation of Bastion Point.
Their message was simple: Bastion Point is Maori land.
Under the leadership of brothers Joe and Grant Hawke and Jack and Roger Rameka, Ngati Whatua o Orakei set about to stop Auckland's Bastion Point (Takaparawhau) from being used for a housing subdivision.
The protest resulted in the eviction and arrests of 222 people.
**READ MORE:
* Veteran celebrates historic Maori protest
* Flashback: Final stand of Ngati Whatua begins at Bastion Point in January 1977
* Bastion Point's Joe Hawke supports fight for Ihumatao in south Auckland
* Ihumatao, the Parihaka of south Auckland?**
Forty years later, arguments over the proposed Ihumatao development in south Auckland - where 80 hectares of historic Maori land are set to be used for 450 new homes - beg the question: did enough people take notice of what happened at Bastion Point?
In 1840, Ngati Whatua chief Apihai Te Kawau signed the Treaty of Waitangi and gifted 3000 acres of land to the Crown to establish Auckland city.
Barely after the ink had dried, Ngati Whatua were virtually landless, left only with a quarter of an acre of land, for an urupa (cemetery).
So when plans for a high-end housing subdivision at Bastion Point were unveiled by former prime minister Robert Muldoon in the late 70s, the people of Ngati Whatua sat peacefully in protest to protect what little of their land remained.
On May 25, 1978, an army convoy rattled down Tamaki Drive and up to Bastion Point. More than 600 army and police personnel forcibly removed elders, men, women, children, and families.
The land was finally returned to Ngati Whatua in the 1980s as part of the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process.
Looking back on what the protesters accomplished, Joe Hawke, now 77, said the fight was worth it.
His voice shakes as he recalls fighting for the occupation, and at his horror his friends and family faced.
'Bastion Point became an icon,' he said.
'Maoridom look to it as an example. It gave people a lot of strength and encouragement, people would say, 'see what they did at Bastion Point'.'
Hawke said arguments over Maori land have come a long way, but that there was still more to be done.
Last month, he sat at Ihumatao with protesters from the activist group Save Our Unique Landscape to show support for their struggle.
Group organiser Pania Newton was at Bastion Point on Thursday morning, celebrating the successes of the people who inspired and motivated the group's fight.
'Forty years has gone but we're still fighting for the same issues on land rights.'
Newton said she looked to the people who fought for Bastion Point to find hope as the group prepared for its own occupation.
'I wasn't even born then, but I'm here to listen, learn and tautoko, because these issues are still here, so I'm here to support them the same way the came to support us at Ihumatao.'
Tragedy struck nine months into the Bastion Point occupation when a makeshift whare burned down, claiming the life of Joanne Hawke, Alec Hawke's young daughter.
Auckland University law professor David Williams said that was the 'watershed moment', transforming the occupation and spurring protests forward.
Joanne's death sparked 'absolute determination' within her family and protesters that they would get their land back.
'And people saw that, and listened, and it went on,' Williams said.
As Hawke sits in his home up at Bastion Point, surrounded by the land he and his people fought to keep, their message still rings true 40 years later: Bastion Point is Maori land.