25 May 2018

Dawn ceremony marks 40 years since Bastion Point evictions

From Morning Report, 8:20 am on 25 May 2018

Forty years ago today the commissioner of Crown land George MacMillan gave the orders for more than 800 police and army personnel to begin forcibly evicting protestors from Bastion Point in Auckland. The protestors had occupied the former Ngati Whatua reserve land for more than 500 days to block government plans for a housing development. The evictions and arrests were a low point in race relations, but also a turning point in events that led to the creation of the Waitangi Tribunal. Commemorations of the occupation began with a dawn ceremony at Takaparawhau Bastion Point on Friday. Sharon Hawke's parents led the protest 40 years ago. She was arrested there when she was just 16 years old and she is there again today. She talks to Susie Ferguson.