July 1st marks 47 years since the handing back to Māori of Takaparawhā, the land known as Bastion Point, overlooking Auckland Harbour. Originally occupied as the ancestral home of the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, over the years the land had been whittled away by speculation in the early growth of Auckland, and by Government confiscation. The land was used for Government fortifications during WWII, and a memorial to the labour Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage was erected there in 1943.

By the 1950s, Māori still living there were being evicted to make way for housing.  The final straw for the iwi was when the Government decided to sell the land in 1977, resulting in a 506 day occupation by Māori that was not concluded until 28 May 1978 when police and army personnel forcibly removed the protestors. The protest became a landmark in the modern struggle to recover confiscated land for Māori, and the land was returned to the iwi 10 years later in 1988 as part of the Treaty settlements.

Bastion Point is now known for the Marae, and the Savage memorial. As Premier, Savage managed to prevent some of the land being taken for state housing. He was one of the most revered and recognisable of New Zealand leaders. We have for sale a couple of original ink cartoons of Savage. One from 1936 by Oriwa T Haddon, politician, Methodist minister and artist, depicts Savage as the boy with the bubbles. The other by the notable Auckland cartoonist William Blomfield  depicting Savage in Māori costume performing a haka.