Joe Hawke was a leader of the occupation at Takaparawhau / Bastion Point in 1977 which led to the eventual return of Takaparawhau land where he is now buried. He worked with Dame Whina Cooper for the land march down the North Island in 1975. A decade later, the Waitangi Tribunal would find in one of its seminal rulings that Ngāti Whatua had been wronged at Takaparawhau. The land was returned, along with $3 million compensation. Hawke went on to be an iwi leader, businessman and, later, a two-term Labour list MP. At his funeral, Hawke's brother, Alec, told the tangi: "We were landless. We had nothing to lose. And we stood by him. He drew a line in the sand and said 'no more' to those who had trampled on our rights. Not only our rights, but the rights for every Māori ope in the country. He had one simple message: Give our land back."

Document established a demarcation line east of the Azores and Cape Verde, declaring all lands 'discovered' by Columbus the year before to be exclusively claimed for the Spain and the Catholic Church. The Bull stated that any land not inhabited by Christians was available to be "discovered," claimed, and exploited by Christian rulers and declared that "the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself." This "Doctrine of Discovery" became the basis of all European claims in the Americas as well as the foundation for the United States’ western expansion.