The Native Land Court declared Ōrākei inalienable, the Crown took or bought almost all of it, and 800 police and soldiers ended a 506-day occupation with 222 arrests

Apihai Te Kawau of Ngāti Whātua signed the Treaty of Waitangi on 20 March 1840. In 1869 he obtained a Crown grant for land at Ōrākei, and in 1873 the Native Land Court ordered that it "shall be inalienable"^†. The Crown took Bastion Point for defence during the Russian scare of 1885 and never returned it. In 1894 Parliament's Validation of Invalid Land Sales Act undid the inalienable status, and from 1913 to 1928 the government bought most of the land^†. In 1941 the Crown gave Bastion Point to Auckland City Council as a reserve. In 1951 the last Ngāti Whātua residents at Ōrākei were evicted and their houses demolished^†. In 1976 Prime Minister Robert Muldoon announced the land would be sold for luxury housing. On 5 January 1977 the Ōrākei Māori Action Committee, led by Joe Hawke, occupied Bastion Point. Hawke said the land had been "confiscated under the Public Works Lands Act", not sold. On 30 September 1977 nine-year-old Joanna Hawke died in a fire at the camp. On 25 May 1978 about 800 police and soldiers removed the occupiers, arrested 222 people and demolished the meeting house, buildings and gardens. In 1987 the Waitangi Tribunal found for Ngāti Whātua. Bastion Point and Ōrākei Marae were returned in 1988^†, and a deed of settlement was signed on 5 November 2011^†. Joe Hawke died in May 2022, aged 82.