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National | Land

March veterans to share experience on land hīkoi to Parliament

October 13 2015 will mark 40 years since the arrival of the Māori land march to Wellington.

Four individuals, Cyril Chapman, Joseph Cooper, Vivian Hutchinson and David Williams, who participated in the hīkoi, will share their memories and reflect on the event in a panel discussion, chaired by National Library Māori curator, Paul Diamond.

The event, titled 30 days to Wellington, will be held at the National Library on Tuesday 13 October at 3pm.

An exhibition at the Turnball Gallery 'Not one more acre': The Māori Land March 40 years on, will also remember the events that took place 40 years ago.

Diamond says “This event set the groundwork for so many things which followed, as Māori reasserted their mana and political power in Aotearoa New Zealand,”

“The strong resistance from some Māori to the idea of the march was a revelation, as was the absence of any reference to the Treaty of Waitangi, even though the concerns about land loss were all to do with the Treaty.”

In 1975, thousands of Māori and Pākehā lined up along the motorway into Wellington on October 13, concluding the Māori land march to parliament.

Dame Whina Cooper led the march and walked the length of the North Island in just 30 days, to protest the loss of Māori land.

To find out more on these events, you can visit the National Library website.