Bastion Point:
507 Days on Takaparawha,
Auckland 1977-78
Tania Roxborogh
Bastion Point:
507 Days on Takaparawha,
Auckland 1977-78
Tania Roxborogh
My New Zealand series
Scholastic (2017)
Historical novel
206 pages, paperback
Historical notes, booklist, photographs
ISBN 978 1 77543 479 5
‘Dad, this is so stupid. We are nobody and nobody
cares what we think.’
This novel, the latest in the respected My New Zealand Story series,
is told as the diary of a 12-year-old Māori girl, Erica Tito, who unexpectedly
finds her plans for a relaxing summer holiday of training her pony completely
upset. Today the Bastion Point protest is seen as a turning-point in New
Zealand’s history but Erica, at first, has no idea of what is involved. The
reader learns along with her as she writes about each day’s developments in her
diary.
Told to pack for a ‘short holiday down south,’ Erica finds
herself part of a large group camped on an Auckland headland. On the first
morning, Erica doesn’t even know where she is.
‘But, Dad… Where are we? Are we in Auckland?’
‘Yes, and this place here, my people call Takaparawha but on the maps it’s
Bastion Point.’
Erica’s father has brought his family to join a protest against the selling-off
of Bastion Point, an area of land the Ngati Whatua people claimed had been
illegally taken from them. The protestors – who preferred not to be called
occupiers – set up an encampment and, amid increasing national controversy,
remained there for 507 days. Tania Roxborogh has done her research well and
provided the tiny details that make her story so convincingly genuine. For
example a garden hose was the only supply of drinking water in the early days.
Another striking aspect is that, throughout the protest, the young people
involved attended the local schools. Erica is thus faced with all the problems
of being a new student in a strange city but also of being perceived as a
disruptive element. All the issues of the complex and controversial national
dispute are mirrored in the tensions Erica encounters at school. Thus, when the
truckloads of police suddenly arrive, at Bastion Point, the reader is fully
aware of what is at stake.
A clever framing device helps put the diary into its historical context and
also gives a hint of Erica’s future. This is a simply-told but powerful
historical novel, a reminder that governments can be obtuse and autocratic and
that sometimes people have to take a stand.
As usual in this highly-regarded series, there is a Timeline, Historical Note,
Glossary, Bibliography and a set of contemporary photographs.
Trevor Agnew, 7 January 2017
[Review 2998]
Helpful notes and questions, discussion topics and activities, are in the Teacher Notes on the Scholastic NZ website: mnzs-bastion-point.pdf
Review for Magpies
magazine, April 2017 issue
By Trevor Agnew
Bastion Point: 507 Days on Takaparawha,
Auckland 1978-79
Tania
Roxborogh
Scholastic (2017) (My New Zealand Story series)
206 pages, pb,
NZ$18
978 1 77543 479 5
“What is this place?” I asked.
“This is where I was born,” he said…”It’s gone now.
All the homes were destroyed when I was a kid.”
The fortieth
anniversary of the confrontation over Bastion Point is a sobering reminder of
just how far race relations and Maori land issues have come since the 1970s.
Those who lived through that period have vivid memories of the conflict and the
attitudes, but how can children growing up today understand the way things were
back then?
The answer is to
be found in Tania Roxborogh’s excellent novel, Bastion Point: 507 Days on Takaparawha, the latest in Scholastic’s
superb My New Zealand Story series. Roxborogh has created a young girl, Erica
Tito, who lives in a rural area north of Auckland and has no knowledge of her
father’s childhood or of Ngati Whatua’s land confiscation protests. All Erica
is interested in is training her pony Silver. We know this because Erica’s
diary entries for 1977 and 1978 form the narrative.
The reader learns along with Erica as her life suddenly changes forever. Told to pack for a “short holiday down south,” Erica finds herself part of a large group camped on an Auckland headland. Her father has brought his family to join a sit-in protest against the selling-off of Bastion Point, an area of land the Ngati Whatua people claimed had been illegally taken from them.
The protestors –
who prefer not to be called occupiers – settle down in their encampment and,
amid increasing national controversy, remain there for 507 days.
Roxborogh’s master
stroke in this story reflects her careful research. The Bastion Point children
went to school locally. It sound simple but it creates a perfect microcosm of
New Zealand as Erica encounters various responses to the land dispute. Pining
for her pony, and labelled a troublemaker at school, Erica gradually learns more about
the history of the area. The most moving testimony comes from her father, describing
how his childhood home was bulldozed, “They
told us to get our gear and leave because they were going to remove the
houses…Then they set them all on fire. They killed my dog.”
Always, the author maintains a young girl’s viewpoint, drawing us in to Erica’s experiences and emotions. “According to Father Shirres at the church service last Sunday, we’ve been protesting on the Point longer than Noah and his family were in their Ark. That story will never be the same to me again – I think I know how they must have felt.” Finally, Erica stands with the others as the police convoy arrives.
A lovely feature of this dramatic story is the framing device, set in the present day, which enables the reader to work out what became of Erica and her dreams. This is a gripping and powerful historical novel, a reminder that governments can be obtuse and autocratic and that sometimes people have to take a stand.
As always with
this series, there is an informative Timeline, Historical Note, Glossary,
Bibliography and a set of contemporary photographs.
Trevor Agnew
30 March 2017
Author Tania Roxborogh’s rich creative life ‘rewrites the narrative’ of a troubled childhood
As told to Joanna Davis|Homed
Photos by Peter Meecham, The Press, Christchurch [Stuff]
Your weekend magazine, 25 July 2026
July 25, 2026 • 4:00am
Copy Link
Told as a teenager that she’d never amount to anything,
Tania Roxborogh has gone on to be a multi-award winning author and educator,
perhaps best known for her Charlie Tangaroa series of books for young readers.
Roxborogh (60, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri,
Scottish, German, and Irish descent) lives in Lincoln, Canterbury.
TANIA: This is probably the longest I’ve been in
one house in my entire life, 10 years.
I was born in Christchurch and just before I turned four we
moved to the Bay of Plenty. But we moved around a lot: In one year I went to
seven different primary schools.
When I was 15 I left home, tried to find my father, found
him, that was a disaster. He was in a drunken rage and kicked me out.
I spent 18 months in foster care. I’m incredibly grateful
for their generosity and their kindness. They were so patient with me, even
though I would nick her cigarettes. They even got a horse for me.
As hard as I was on them, they showed me what good families
are like.
Sixteen was the beginning of my depression and anxiety. I
went to fill out one of those personality questionnaires, the psychologist and
the social worker said to me: ‘Tania, you will never amount to anything. You’ve
set yourself up to fail.’
My uncle had dropped me off. He said, Let’s prove the
bastards wrong. Let’s show them.
I have a BA in humanities, a post-graduate diploma, first
class honours in Māori knowledge and I’m working on my PhD.
I started writing at high school. Bless my teachers. This is
why I became a teacher. I wanted to become for other kids what mine were to me.
I started teaching at Macleans College in Auckland, and then
moved to Westlake Girls High school to become head of drama. I found it
difficult to find plays the girls could perform in, so I wrote some.
I joined writing groups, read a lot. I don’t see myself as
especially talented. I’m a good storyteller but I’m willing to improve and make
changes when people make suggestions.
I was in Auckland nearly 20 years, then got a
writer-in-residence position in Dunedin, so we stayed in the South Island.
My husband, Phillip, is a lecturer in technology and
computing. When we moved to Dunedin, he arranged it so he could work from home.
The time he saved in commuting, he did a masters and then got a job at ARA
[Institute of Canterbury].
In 2023 I moved from my job which I loved to the Ministry of
Education. And that was important. My PhD is in helping teachers teach
Shakespeare through a te ao Māori lens - basically decolonising Shakespeare.
I’d only just started and the new Government came in and I lost my job.
They’ve undone all the good stuff that was being done. I
feel embarrassed to say but I lost my mojo. I can’t be the teacher I want to be
any more. I’m just so over the changes and the politics.
I have two daughters, Mackenna, 34; she’s a vet, and she and
her social worker husband live in Brisbane. I think they’ll come home. And my
pōtiki Brianna is 30, and she lives in Christchurch. She comes to visit and
goes on Dad dates which means he takes her to the petrol station and fills it
up with petrol.
I spend a lot of time avoiding doing my work. The third
draft of my latest novel has been to the editor and come back full of
annotations. So I watched 15 seasons of Call the Midwife. I’d do a
bit of work and then go and watch an episode.
I’m lucky I have good support networks who help me navigate
past trauma. I’ve been diagnosed with complex PTSD. I didn’t realise I spent my
life disassociating.
That’s how I managed my whole life, I saw it as a story
rather than as a reality of my upbringing.
But I can re-write my narrative the way I want it to be.
Your Weekend [Stuff] 25 July 2026, pages 14-15.
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