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The occupation of Bastion Point, Takaparawhā, lasted for 507 days and ended in 1978 with a paramilitary exercise which evicted many of Joe Hawke's supporters. This programme backgrounds some of the circumstances in which the people of Tāmakimakaurau, Ngāti Whātua, lost their lands since the time that settlers arrived from Great Britain. Joe Hawke talks about his ancestors, their settlement in the Auckland area, and how successive governments have had a hand in the de-settlement of his people.
He says that the Ōrākei Marae, established through hard work, will never replace their papakāinga which was torched by local government authorities in 1950. Then Joe and his brother watched the devastation before their eyes without understanding it.
The meeting of Auckland metropolitan court officials at Ōrākei brought these issues to the fore again. The hui was called to find a way for the courts and tangata whenua to work together in a complementary relationship and therefore find a better way of working in a partnership under the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi.
(Sound Archives MPT HRK 940816)