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Overview
This poster advertises a book about the aftermath of the protests against the government's decision to build houses on Ngāti Whātua land at Takaparawhau / Bastion Point, Auckland.
In January 1977, protesters began a 506-day occupation of Takaparawhau led by the Ōrākei Māori Action Committee. On 25 May 1978, the government sent in a huge force of police and army personnel to evict the occupation. 222 protesters were arrested and their temporary meeting house, buildings, and gardens were demolished. The Bastion Point occupation became one of the most famous protest actions and infamous state interventions in New Zealand history.
The book included final submissions made by the defendants in the case of the Attorney-General versus Joseph Parata Hawke, Jack Rameka, Grant Pakiana Hawke and Roger Paratene Rameka; an article by Syd Jackson on Justice Speight's judgment of the case; and brief historical notes on the land at Bastion Point under dispute.
Ten years after the eviction in 1988, the Waitangi Tribunal supported Ngāti Whātua claims to the land, and it was returned.