A report on Bastion Point, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Ōrākei and Ngāti Whātua

Takaparawhau / Bastion Point is a coastal piece of land in Ōrākei, Auckland, New Zealand, overlooking the Waitematā Harbour.

Together with Te Uri-o-Hau, Te Roroa and Te Taoū, it comprises the iwi (tribe) of Ngāti Whātua.

It comprises a confederation of four hapū (subtribes) interconnected both by ancestry and by association over time: Te Uri-o-Hau, Te Roroa, Te Taoū, and Ngāti Whātua-o-Ōrākei.

Takaparawhau / Bastion Point is a coastal piece of land in Ōrākei.

Takaparawhau / Bastion Point is the location of Ōrākei Marae and its Tumutumuwhenua wharenui (meeting house) is a traditional tribal meeting ground for the Ngāti Whātua iwi (tribe) and their Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Ngā Oho, Te Taoū and Te Uri hapū (sub-tribes).

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, who own most of the land again, call it Takaparawhau, which, along with Ōkahu Bay, form Whenua Rangatira, which is vested in Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei for the common use and benefit of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and citizens of Auckland, and is managed by the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Reserves Board.

On 20 March 1840 in the Manukau Harbour area where Ngāti Whātua farmed, paramount chief Apihai Te Kawau signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Ngāti Whātua came to national prominence in the 1970s in a dispute over vacant land at Bastion Point, a little way east of the Auckland city centre, adjoining the suburb of Ōrākei.

The 700-acre Ōrākei block was all that remained.

In the 1970s Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei played a leading role in a dispute over vacant land at Bastion Point / Takaparawhau, east of the Auckland city centre, adjoining the suburb of Ōrākei.