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.
Ngati Whatua
Events In History
25 May 1978
Police and army personal removed 222 people from Bastion Point, Auckland, ending an occupation that had begun in January 1977. Ngāti Whātua were protesting against the loss of land in the Ōrakei Block, which had once been declared ‘absolutely inalienable’.
5 January 1977
Led by Joe Hawke, the Ōrākei Māori Action Committee occupied Takaparawhā (Bastion Point reserve), a promontory overlooking Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour.
Biographies
Ngāti Whatua chief Paora Tūhaere became a leading member of the Te Kotahitanga movement, which aimed to create a Māori parliament to give Māori greater authority in government.
James Henare was Ngā Puhi leader, soldier, farmer, and community leader. After the Second World War he helped set up the kōhanga reo programme and fought for recognition of Māori rights under the Treaty of Waitangi.
Te Kawau was a Ngāti Whātua leader who signed the Treaty of Waitangi at Manukau Harbour in March 1840. He later worked with European magistrates to settle disputes among Māori.
Main image: James Henare
James Clendon Henare, photographed circa 1945, by Stanley Polkinghorne Andrew.
