May 25, 2022
Achievements not enough for visionary Hawke
Former Labour MP Māori Affairs Minister Dover Samuels says his colleague Joe Hawke was due a knighthood for his contributions to Māoridom.
The Bastion Point occupation leader and two-term MP died on Sunday aged 82.
Mr Samuels says Mr Hawke took Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei from landlessness to being one of the richest hapū in Māoridom.
He visited him recently at the Ōrākei rest home where he spent his final years.
“We would talk about things and then we would drift in and out of recognising what we were talking about but there was one thing that did come through to me – that he was sad he didn’t do enough – and I look around and I see the results of his achievements. Tears came to my eyes,” Mr Samuels says.
Joe Hawke’s tangi continues today at Ōrākei Marae, and it’s also the anniversary of police arresting 222 people to end the 506 day occupation of Takaparawhau-Bastion Point.