Bastion Point: A Cold Hard Stare

Tu Tangata, Issue 2, 1 October 1981, Page 31

Bastion Point: A Cold Hard Stare

KUPU WHAKAATA/Reviews

A review by Rowley Habib of the Mita, Pohlmann, Narby Productions documentary film: “BASTION POINT. DAY 507” screened on Television One’s “Contact” programme.

Once when I was up at Bastion Point, during one of those many false alarms about the place being raided by the police, someone had pointed out a group of people and said they were a German film company who’d been living on the Point for some time and were making a documentary film about the place. This is why I thought this film would be a general coverage of the long occupation there.

Instead what unfolded before me, for at least three quarters of the 30 minute film duration was a detailed documentation of that final eventful day of May 25, 1978 when the Government forces moved in and arrested 222 people on the site and razed the buildings. To say the least, it was a very disturbing spectacle.

This is a brave film in every aspect. Fast moving and no nonsense. Tight, factual, unemotional, yet sympathetic to the subject. And honest: almost brutally honest. The editing is nothing less than brilliant. To my mind, it is up there with the very best of documentary films.

The tone and pace is set from the opening shots: an aerial still of the Point taken from somewhere over the Waitemata Harbour. Merata Mita’s narration, sympathetic but unemotional, briefs the viewer of the history of the place leading up to why the protesters were making their stand there.

NO NONSENSE

Her final words are: “This is a record of that final day”. You know immediately it is going to be a no nonsense film. And then it takes you straight into the action. Joe Hawke is making his final statement and plea to his people and the nation.

Then the Commissioner of Crown Lands is handing Joe, and the other leaders of the Orakei Action Committee, writs warning them they are trespassing and therefore breaking the law. We see Joe Hawke and the other leaders of the protest making a final approach to the elders of Ngati Whatua in a last ditch attempt to avert a confrontation. But to no avail.

And then we are looking at a scene that could have been taken in any one of a dozen countries where civil war has broken out and the Militia has taken over. A seemingly endless convoy of army vehicles slowly but relentlessly approaches along a public thoroughfare. That it is the film makers’ belief that these are the only film footage of this event, seems to me to indicate some kind of indictment in itself. It is not a pretty sight. POLICE CLOSE IN The vehicles stop and the uniformed police, in stark white helmets, climb out in their scores. And then we are witness to what I at least feel is one of the most brilliant and effective editing of any documentary film I have been fortunate enough to see as the film cuts back and forth between police and protesters. There are long shots of the police advancing in closed rank; close-ups of the faces of the protesters, looking anxious but curious; close-ups of the

faces of the police the set blank almost sullen looks, staring straight ahead of them. There is a long shot of the police gradually closing in on the buildings and protesters surrounding them and a close-up of the kuia rising to her feet and tentatively reaching out and holding to the verandah post of the meeting house next to her. One is not certain whether she is holding to it for comfort or whether she is trying to protect it. Or both. There are many cut-backs to this kuia a kaumatua of the tribe throughout this period. It is a brilliant ploy of the film makers, for in her face an entire story, in itself unfolds. Then begins a series of the brilliant use of stills: black and white photographs that became so familiar to millions of readers of newspapers for days to come after the incident. These are effectively inter-cut with live footage of the actual scenes; qualifying that it had actually happened, that it was no myth concocted up by sensation hungry news media.

Suddenly the film takes on a change of pace and a new dimension. Radio is introduced. We hear a short violent burst of introductory music then the announcer is keeping his listeners informed with a blow by blow account of procedures taking place below from a circling helicopter.

All the while he is delivering his spiel, we are made to look at that incredible scene described above. As if the makers’ intentions are that we should never forget it.

Grant Hawke is performing a solo version of the most famous haka of defiance, “Ka mate, ka mate”. The cut from the previous still to this live action is near touch of genius. People are sitting and standing about resigned to their fate now. They have only one recourse left to turn to. They begin up singing. Cut back to the kuia holding to the post. The camera draws back, above her nailed to the wall is the name of the meeting house, “Arohanui”, “Much Love”.

There is the measured reading of that damned Proclamation again, then the first batch of police move in for the arrests. And now follows the long and painful removal and arrests. Not long after that you become aware that the remainder of the film is being shot from outside the surrounding fence. It isn’t hard to guess why this might be. However, enough was captured close-up to give the viewer some indication of what it was like to be on the Point that day.

PROTEST ENDS

Finally there is only a mere handful of the last remaining protesters left in the meeting house. By now you know the protest is all over and that it is only a matter of time before the police deal with those still inside. There is however one last bit of drama to be enacted out.

The people crowded over at the fence by the gate begin to move back and a look of expectancy shows on their faces. Joe Hawke, accompanied by close friends and members of his family is walking slowly through.

The police block his way. There is a tense moment as the crush of people behind begin to push Joe and the others up front tigP up against the police barring the way. But someone calls out a warning and it is all over. Ard then there is that man with the angry face saying: “How long! How much bloody longer!” I do not wish to elaborate on the rest of his frustrated outcry. Those of us who have been involved in the Land Protest Movement

have been asking and wondering about this same question also for some time now. Now comes the civilian participation in the removal the demolition teams. The removal of the wreckage is unceremonious and swift. The operation is so efficient and military it is frightening. The entire operation is over in a matter of hours. It had begun on the dot of 9 a.m. It is all over by 1 p.m. ALL GONE I could not help but be reminded of other places of similar Maori resistence in the past that met with similar fates: Parihaka; Maungapohatu; Orakeu; Rangiriri. All gone. In some cases even desecrated, as if by doing this the Powers-that-be had hoped to belittle and remove the mana of these places. If for no other reason (yet in itself it is an excellent example of documentary filming) I am glad this visual record of the destruction of Bastion Point was made. For so long as it exists we will continue to be reminded that Bastion Point did exist and know the truth of the forces that so swiftly and thoroughly destroyed it. One final observation I’d like to make in concluding. This is that in seeing the shots of the police march-

ing on the Point, I couldn’t help seeing the similarity of shots of the police marching on Rua Kenana’s settlement at Maungapohatu (eronious or perhaps it was deliberate, for obvious reasons referred to as a “stronghold”) more than half a century ago. And I couldn’t help feeling that we haven’t really gone very far with regards to racial understanding and tolerance in that time. The manner in which the film came into being is, I think, worth relating briefly. When it became certain that the Government’s threat to remove the protesters of Bastion Point would be a reality, Merata Mita wishing to have the occasion recorded “from a Maori point of view” hastily cast around for a crew to assist her. In fact, I believe, this was done on the very day of the arrests. She had some difficulty doing this, for at least one of the people she approached initially backed off once it became known what the nature of the assignment was. Undeterred, she pressed on until eventually by the time she swung into action with her crew it consisted of herself, a Maori; Leon Narby (on camera) a Kiwi and Gerd Pohlmann, a German. Merata and Gerd between them handled the sound recording.