Protesters to try to wear down police

Press, 27 May 1978, Page 1

Protesters to try to wear down police

A policy of wearing the police down, rather than meet them in a direct confrontation, now seems to be the plan of the Bastion Point protesters.

On Thursday, when the police cleared Bastion Point, Mr Joe Hawke said: “We will settle our people on the marae. Today we did not have the mass support we could perhaps have tomorrow.”

But yesterday, Mr Hawke said: “This is only going into the second day. I am going to see if they (the police) can last 503 more days.” (The protesters occupied the Point for 504 days). Asked if the protesters would force the issue while the police were still on the point, Mr Hawke replied: “We will restructure our position and call our people so we can bring out the grievances of all Maori tribes,” the Press Association reports. Late yesterday afternoon there appeared to be about 40 protesters quartered at the neighbouring Orakei marae. Other protesters were probably still at work.

The protesters plan to hold a hui (meeting) of various tribes on the Orakei marae next weekend. Mr Hawke said representatives had been sent to several parts of the North Island yesterday to explain what had happened so far. The Maori people would be told of the dignity which “our people showed” during the police eviction. The protesters had answered the critics who had talked of civil war and a blood-bath which never came about. To the news that the Crown intended to remove the memorial to Joann Manumea Cooper (who has been referred to as Joann Hawke), Mr Hawke said: “Our memorial to our baby, Joann, must remain. We insist that it must remain. "If the Government dares move that sacred place we will be forced to call on the tapuness of our ancestors to deal with this diabolical situation.”

In a “spiritual sense” the ancestors would make their force felt to anyone who transgressed. But last evening the Commissioner of Crown Lands at Auckland (Mr McMillan), said the “material” would be removed soon.

“I believe that the family was going to have some sort of ceremony at the memorial spot, I think on Friday,” he said. “I certainly gave permission for it on Friday. Now that that has happened, we will remove the materials.”

It was quiet yesterday at Bastion Point. Five policemen guarded the gate and seemed in light spirits. Some distance away at least another 30 policemen could be seen gathered together. In Wellington yesterday Maori elders, young children, and toddlers revived memories of the great land march two years ago as they sang, chanted, and even laughed their way to Parliament.

They numbered about 600 including 200 from the Gear Meat Company works at Petone, who hired five buses so that they could join the protest.

The march began at Pigeon Park. The Wellington leader of Te Matakite (Mr Tom Poata) said that if laws were bad they must be ignored. The Government did not realise the depth of passion the Bastion Point issue had generated among the Maoris. He believed Bastion Point would be reoccupied by the protesters and that the Government “had a taniwha by the tail.”

Mr W. Mathews, a union representative at the Gear Meat Company, said that feeling among Maoris at the works was intense.

Early yesterday he began to receive telephone calls from sections of the plant and soon realised that workers were upset and wanted to join the protest.

"It soon became clear work would have to stop,” he said.

The crowd grew silent when a Maori elder, Mr Nelson Carrol, spoke. He said that Government possession of Bastion Point was “severe injustice” to the Maori people.

“If the Government now thinks it has got Bastion Point it is in for a rude awakening. Young Maoris want action today,” Mr Carrol said. As the march set off,

sympathetic Maori construction workers stopped work and scurried down ladders, steps, and scaffolding to join in. Protesters at the front carried a huge banner in Maori which, translated, read: "We will fight on.”

When the march was passing the Wellington War Memorial a brown Government car stopped at the intersection and waited for people to pass. In the back seat was the Minister of Maori and Island Affairs (Mr Maclntyre). A Maori studies student, Mr Gerard Winter, broke ranks, ran to the car and tapped on the closed window. It opened and Mr Maclntyre accepted Mr Winter’s protest circular and said he would read it.

At Parliament, 13 policemen positioned themselves across the main steps as the marchers gathered at their base. They were were addressed by two Opposition members of Parliament, Mr M. Rata and Mrs T. W. M. TirikateneSullivan.

Mr Rata said that a Labour Government would restore Bastion Point to the Maori people and negotiate with them on its wider use. Mrs Tirikatene-Sullivan said: “The Government says we are too concerned for the trade unions. I say the Government is too concerned with private developers, as Bastion Point has showed.”

The police allowed a deputation of six march leaders inside Parliament to meet the Minister of Lands (Mr V. S. Young) who ordered Thursday’s eviction. He was out, and the deputation left. A deputation member, Mr Hete Te Hemara, chairman of Te Matakite’s Wellington branch, said they had intended to ask Mr Young to allow the protesters back on Bastion Point. They also wanted a tribunal elected by Maori land-owners to hear all Maori land grievances and for a stay to be put on present grievances. Auckland arrests Page 6.