The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "place of adornment" for the Māori name of Ōrākei.

[3] 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).

[4][5] In the 1940s, the Ōrākei pā (village) was one of the last places where traditional pre-European kūmara cultivars (either hutihuti or rekamaroa) were grown.

[6] Takaparawhau / Bastion Point is also the location of the Savage Memorial, the tomb and memorial garden for Michael Joseph Savage, the first Labour Party prime minister of New Zealand and one of the country's most popular prime ministers, who died in office in 1940.

The Art Deco ensemble designed by Tibor Donner and Anthony Bartlett was officially opened in March 1943 and has expansive views of the Waitemata Harbour.

[9] In 1936-37 John A. Lee proposed to evict the 120 Māori living in the foreshore pā at Takaparawhau / Bastion Point and to include the land in the proposed Ōrākei state housing scheme; the proposal (seen as using Māori land as a park for white children) attracted many local objections (including Robin Hyde in No More Dancing at Orakei) and was reversed by Prime Minister Savage on his return from overseas.

[7][10] In 1976 the Crown announced that it planned to develop Bastion Point by selling it to the highest bidder for high-income housing.

In 1977–1978 the Ōrākei Māori Action Committee organised an occupation of the remaining Crown land that lasted for 506 days.

[11][12] Under the 1991 Orakei Act, parts of Takaparawhau, including the marae, church, and now developed land, were reserved for Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei.