The area is significant in New Zealand history as the site of protests in the late 1970s by Māori against forced land alienation by Pākehā (European settlers).

[3][4][5][6] The public land containing the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial and Fort Britomart tunnels is not owned by the hapū, who refer to it as Kohimarama, while Auckland Council now call it Takaparawhau.

Soon after signing Te Tiriti, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, the primary hapū and landowner in Tāmaki Makaurau, made a tuku (strategic gift) of 3,500 acres (1,400 hectares) of land on the Waitematā Harbour to William Hobson, the new Governor of New Zealand, for the new capital.

[14] In 1886, the Crown used the Public Works Act 1882 (46 Vict No 37) to take ownership of 13 acres (5.3 ha) of Bastion Point for this purpose of defence.

[15][16] In 1936, Ōrākei was proposed as a site for state housing by the First Labour Government, and in August a Māori delegation asked Prime Minister Savage that at least the marae on the flat foreshore where he had been ceremonially welcomed after his election should be retained by the tribe.

The Labour state housing team John A. Lee and Frank Langstone decided that the 120 Māori living at Ōrākei were illegal squatters and had to be removed.

The incensed Ōrākei Māori met Savage on his return from overseas, and he immediately reversed the decision, avoiding what could have been a political crisis.

[17] In November 1936, Lee had assured Walter Nash that the Māori would be removed without much difficulty; but they refused, and were supported by the Clergy Association, the Protestant churches, the Anglican Bishop, the Friends of Orakei and the New Zealand Observer.

[19] In 1941, the Crown no longer needed Bastion Point for defence, it did not return the land to its traditional Māori owners but instead gifted it to the Auckland City Council for a reserve.

[20][5] The first Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand, Michael Joseph Savage died in office in 1940, and is buried in an Art Deco mausoleum at Takaparawhau / Bastion Point designed by Tibor Donner and Anthony Bartlett with a sculpture by R. O.

It has large columns, sunken gardens and a reflecting pool which was built in two years by Fletcher Construction for £34,533, with the cost raised by subscription.

[25] The occupation lasted for 506 days; it ended on 25 May 1978,[1][26] when 800 police and personnel of the New Zealand Army forcibly removed the occupiers and destroyed the temporary buildings—including vegetable gardens and the marae.