Joseph Parata Hohepa Hawke (1940 – 22 May 2022) was a New Zealand politician and Māori land rights activist. He was a member of Parliament for the Labour Party from 1996 to 2002. Biography Early life and career Hawke was born in 1940 and raised in Ōrākei, living initially in a simple corrugated iron hut. His father was a waterfront worker and his family experienced the 1951 waterfront dispute firsthand. Local housing authorities encouraged the families in his community to exchange the land they lived on for more modern houses elsewhere with electricity. However, Hawke's grandmother stressed the importance of land. To prove her point she sat him down on one occasion and put a lump of soil in one hand and six pennies in his other asking him think to about which of the two would last longer. Inspired by his grandmother's point he formed the Ōrākei Māori Action Committee in 1976, to take action to halt a land subdivision on the Auckland waterfront. The Ngāti Whātua iwi claimed the land had been taken unjustly from them by the crown and the subdivision plan (for a private housing development) would have left Ngāti Whātua with less than a hectare of remaining land. Hawke led the occupation of Takaparawhau / Bastion Point in 1977, defying then prime minister Robert Muldoon to protest the development. The Muldoon government offered in February 1978 to return some land and houses to the iwi provided they pay $200,000 in development costs. They refused the offer. During the occupation there was fire in a tent on 26 September 1977 which caused the death of Hawke's niece Joanna. He and the protesters stayed on the land for a total of 405 days before the police and army arrested and expelled them on 25 May 1978. Seven years later, after a law change extended the Waitangi Tribunal's jurisdiction back to 1840, Ngāti Whātua's claim in Ōrākei was the first historical claim to be heard. A 1987 report by the tribunal recommended the land be returned to Ngāti Whātua. In 1988 the government agreed. Before entering Parliament, he worked as a consultant and a company director. He was involved with a number of Māori organisations and the Mai FM radio station. He was a lay preacher for the Open Brethren. Member of Parliament He was first elected to Parliament in the 1996 election as a list MP, having