Bastion Point

- 36.844166666667174.82416666667Koordinaten: 36 ° 50 ' 39 " S, 174 ° 49' 27" E

Bastion Point ( Māori Takaparawhau ) is a piece of coastal land in Orakai in Auckland, New Zealand. It is located south of the entrance to the Waitemata Harbour. The area has a special significance in the history of New Zealand, as it was a focal point of the protests of the Māori against forced transfers of property to Māoriland by white New Zealanders.

The area belonged to before colonization of New Zealand to the iwi Ngāti Whatua occupation and was an important area with rich fishing grounds and fields. The area and its surroundings was either purchased by the New Zealand Government or expropriated for use for public purposes. The area was developed over a period of the 1840s to the 1950s.

Built in 1885 the New Zealand government in Kohimarama, or Bastion Point a military outpost, as the area offered an important strategic position at the entrance to Waitemata Harbour. The outpost was not built on Takaparawhau Point, a piece of land that had been made ​​available to the government for just this purpose by the Māori available. 1886 took the crown of the Public Works Act 1882 to 53,000 m² of Bastion Point to expropriate for defense purposes. When the crown Bastion Point no longer needed for this purpose, the land was not returned original Māori owners. Instead, they donated it to the City Council Auckland City Council. These were the last 240,000 m² unused land in Orakei, the hoped recover the local sub-tribe ( hapu ). 1976 announced the crown that you intend to develop Bastion Point and to auction off to the highest bidding at real estate companies for the construction of houses for the upper strata of the population.

Joe Hawke and other members of the hapu, but also activists of Pākehā ( New Zealanders of European descent ) were the Orakei Māori Action Committee to the distribution of land to be stopped. 1977 to 1978, the committee organized the occupation of the remaining crown land and prevented its confiscation by the Muldoon government. A Marae and houses were built and cultivated crops.

The peaceful occupation lasted 507 days and ended on 25 May 1978 800 policemen and the New Zealand Army expelled the occupying force and destroyed the houses, the marae and the fields. 220 occupiers were arrested. The land occupation and its violent ending helped to make the injustice to Aboriginal people clear and was a milestone in the history of Māori protest movement.

In the 1980s, the New Zealand government apologized formally and gave the land back as part of the agreements in the Treaty of Waitangi with a compensation to the Ngāti Whatua occupation. A documentary about expropriation of Maori land and the events at Bastion Point was shot by filmmaker Merata Mita. It's called " Bastion Point Day 507" and uses footage from the occupation of land in Bastion Point.

The 23rd Prime Minister of New Zealand, Michael Joseph Savage, is buried at Bastion Point. A mausoleum and a memorial was erected in his honor.