Events In History
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1 July 1988Bastion Point land returnedThe government announced that it had agreed to the Waitangi Tribunal's recommendation that Bastion Point on Auckland's Waitematā Harbour be returned to the local iwi, Ngāti Whātua. Read more...
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25 May 1978Bastion Point protesters evictedPolice 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’. Read more...
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5 January 1977Occupation of Bastion Point beginsJoe Hawke led an occupation of Takaparawhā (Bastion Point reserve), Auckland, to protest against the Crown's decision to sell land that Ngāti Whātua maintained had been wrongly taken from them. Read more...
Michael Joseph Savage
Michael Joseph Savage, New Zealand’s first Labour PM, was probably also it's best-loved. His avuncular image hung in the homes of the Labour faithful for decades.
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Treaty timeline
See some of the key events between 1800 and 1849 relating to the Treaty of Waitangi.
- Page 4 - Treaty events since 1950Learn about some of the key events from 1950 onwards relating to the Treaty of
The Treaty in practice
Amalgamating Māori into colonial settler society was a key part of British policy in New Zealand after 1840. Economic and social change, along with land-purchase programmes, were central to this process.
- Page 6 - The Treaty debatedModern New Zealand has debated the Treaty of Waitangi as never before. Understanding, reconciliation, protest and confrontation have been part of this
This promontory above Tāmaki Drive has come to symbolise Māori land issues. It was given to the Crown by Ngāti Whātua as a defence site during the Russian scare of 1885. In 1977–78 a 506-day protest against a proposed Crown sale was held there. The obelisk in Savage Memorial Park on Bastion Point commemorates the burial place of Michael Joseph Savage, first Labour prime minister, who died in 1940.
