Maori claimant tells of bitterness

Press, 27 November 1987, Page 3

Maori claimant tells of bitterness

“The inaction of the Government, councils and politicians, tore the hearts out of our people, cost us the life of our child and saw our kaumatua (elderly) dropping like flies,” the man who lodged the successful first Maori land claim before the Waitangi Tribunal, Mr Joseph Parata Hawke, said yesterday. “Joanni,” a toddler in the care of Mr Hawke and his family, lost her life in a fire during the Bastion Point protests. Many of his ancestors also died after other fires burnt them from their homes during the Crown’s resettlement plan in 1952. In its report on the Ngati Whatua tribal land claim in Orekei, Auckland, the Waitangi Tribunal said the 1977 protests were the result of a legacy of bitterness, division and defeat suffered through the tribe’s relocation from the sacred papakainga (village) to Kitemoana Street. The report highlighted the evidence of a European Aucklander, Mr

John Broadbent, who saw the eviction from his yacht. “It was 35 long years ago but it is still a wound in my side as I remember the smoke drifting across Tamaki Drive. The smoke was billowing and swirling and illuminated from all sides by the flames of collapsing buildings. “Reports of an old man being dragged from the fire are wrong. He actually cast himself into the holocaust of his home. I vividly remember the wailing of the wahine and the confused shouts of the young.” Mr Hawke yesterday said that the lives of many of his people would have been spared if the Crown had honoured the Treaty of Waitangi. He said it was ironic that the report did not contain a recommendation for the Crown to pardon those arrested for trespassing during the Bastion Point protests. “We were trespassing on land which is now ours,” said Mr Hawke. The Tribunal opted to “tread carefully” where

criminal proceedings were involved. Its report outlined 12 breaches and contradictions by the Crown towards the Treaty. The only breach by members of the Ngati Whatua tribe lay in the trespass, it said.

However, there were factors weighing heavily in favour of mitigation which it would convey to the Attomev-General. The Tribunal also declined to recommend that the 5 hectares of Battery Reserve land at Bastion Point be returned to the tribe although it was “tainted” through Crown breaches of the treaty. The 1978 settlement of State housing and open space as tribal compensation should still stand, it said. Although the 1977 protests split the tribe, it had, since 1986, banded together in support of the claim. Mr Hawke said that after 140 years of struggling through commissions and courts the claim had finally been stamped by the Labour Government.