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Kōrero: Auckland places

Bastion Point protest

Video file

In 1976 the government proposed selling part of the Bastion Point reserve for luxury housing. It was on ancestral land that Ngāti Whātua hoped to get back. The tribe mounted a 506-day occupation of the site in 1977–78. The protest ended when the government sent in police to clear the protesters and demolish their makeshift homes. The new housing was never built and under a Treaty of Waitangi settlement much of the land was returned to Ngāti Whātua. This television news clip shows the police arriving at Bastion Point.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

TVNZ Television New Zealand

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Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Margaret McClure, Auckland places – Eastern suburbs: Ōrākei to the Tāmaki River, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/video/16199/bastion-point-protest (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Margaret McClure, i tāngia i te 2 March 2009, updated 5 August 2016.