Waiheke Station

The Waiheke Station, formerly known as the Maori Affairs Block, was returned to Ngati Paoa as part of the Government's settlement with Hauraki Tribes in 1989.

History[edit]

Its colourful history includes a land occupation protest when islanders, Maori and Pakeha together, learned of plans to sign the lease over to former manager George Evans. The Waiheke Land Action Committee was formed and members occupied the block in 1984.

A claim, which came to be known as the Waiheke Claim, was lodged by Hariata Gordon, of Ngati Paoa, over the land with the Waitangi Tribunal. Among its findings, the tribunal said:

". . .the Waiheke occupation was more than an attempt to recapture a part of the world that once belonged to them. It was a proclamation of survival, and a call to the scattered remnants of [Ngati Paoa],a once powerful tribe to come together, to seek an ancestral base from which they might recapture the pride of their forbears and bring hope to a younger generation that might otherwise be lost to the cities."