Tame Iti

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Tame Iti
Born	Rotorua, New Zealand
Ethnicity	Tūhoe Māori

Tāme Iti (born c.1952) has become well-known in New Zealand as a Tūhoe Māori activist.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Current activity 3 Firearms charge 4 2007 terrorism raids 5 Performance art 6 Documentary 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Early life

Born on a train near Rotorua, Tame Iti grew up with his grandparents in the custom known as whāngai (adoption within the same family) on a farm near Ruatoki in the Urewera area of New Zealand. He says that at the age of 10, school authorities forbade him to speak Māori at school.^[1] On leaving school, he took up an apprenticeship in interior decorating in Christchurch.

As the Māori nationalist movement grew in New Zealand in the late 1960s and 1970s, Iti became involved. He protested against the Vietnam War and apartheid-era South Africa, and he became involved with Nga Tamatoa, a major Māori protest-group of the 1970s, from its early days. He joined the Communist Party of New Zealand, and went to China in 1973 during the cultural revolution. He has taken part in a number of land-occupations and held a hikoi to the New Zealand Parliament.

Iti has since worked as a radio DJ and as an artist; and started a restaurant in Auckland serving traditional Māori food^[2] which collapsed shortly after its launch. Sponsored by the wealthy Gibbs family, Iti briefly set up an art-gallery on Auckland's Karangahape Road. He has also made money from fishing, (getting arrested for illegally taking endangered species), and adopted unusual protest-techniques, such as setting up a tent on the lawn at Parliament and purporting it to be the Māori embassy to New Zealand, serving 'eviction notices' on the owners of former Tuhoe land, and selling Tuhoe passports. He stood for Parliament as a candidate of Mana Māori in the 1996, 1999 and 2002 New Zealand general elections.

[edit] Current activity

As of 2006^[update] Tūhoe employed Iti as a social-worker with expertise in combatting drug and alcohol addictions. He has three children, two of them adults.

Tame Iti's ability to court controversy has made him a common feature in New Zealand media, aided by his unusual appearance. Tame Iti has a full facial moko, which he described as "the face of the future" in New Zealand. During 2004 he wore a mohawk. The public arguably know Iti best for his moko and for his habit of performing whakapohane (baring his buttocks) at protests.

[edit] Firearms charge

On January 16 2005 during a powhiri (or greeting ceremony) which formed part of a Waitangi Tribunal hearing, Tāme Iti fired a shotgun into a New Zealand flag in close proximity to a large number of people, which he explained was an attempt to recreate the 1860s East Cape War: "We wanted them to feel the heat and smoke, and Tūhoe outrage and disgust at the way we have been treated for 200 years". The incident was filmed by television crews but initially ignored by police. The matter was however raised in parliament, one opposition MP asking "why Tāme Iti can brandish a firearm and gloat about how he got away with threatening judges on the Waitangi Tribunal, without immediate arrest and prosecution".

New Zealand Police subsequently charged Iti with discharging a firearm in a public place. His trial occurred in June 2006. Tāme Iti elected to give evidence in Māori (his second language), stating that he was following the Tūhoe custom of making noise with totara poles. Tūhoe Rangatira stated Iti had been disciplined by the tribe and protocol clarified to say discharge of a weapon in anger was always inappropriate (but stated that it was appropriate when honouring dead warriors, (in a manner culturally equivalent to the firing of a volley over a grave within Western cultures)). Judge Chris McGuire said "It was designed to intimidate unnecessarily and shock. It was a stunt, it was unlawful".

Judge McGuire convicted Iti on both charges and fined him. Iti attempted to sell the flag he shot on the TradeMe auction site to pay the fine and his legal costs, but the sale - a violation of proceeds of crime legislation - was withdrawn.^[3]

Iti lodged an appeal, in which his lawyer, Annette Sykes, argued that Crown Law did not stretch to the ceremonial area in front of a Marae's Wharenui. On April 4, 2007, the Court of Appeal of New Zealand overturned his convictions for unlawfully possessing a firearm. While recognising that events occurred in "a unique setting", the court did not agree with Sykes' submission about Crown law. However Justices Hammond, O'Regan and Wilson found that his prosecutors failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Iti's actions caused "requisite harm", under Section 51 of the Arms Act. The Court of Appeal described Iti's protest as "a foolhardy enterprise" and warned him not to attempt anything similar again.^{[4] [5]}

[edit] 2007 terrorism raids

Iti figured among the at least 17 people arrested by police on 15 October 2007 in a series of raids under the Terrorism Suppression Act and the Firearms Act.^[6][7]

[edit] Performance art

Tame Iti performed a lead role in the Tempest dance theatre production by MAU, a New Zealand contemporary dance company directed by Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponifasio. The Tempest premiered in Vienna in June 2007. Tempest II was performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London in June 2008. Because of Iti's arrest and court case over the 'terror-raids' Ponifasio had to convince the New Zealand High Court to allow the detained Maori activist to travel on the 2008 tour. Affidavits in support of MAU from international arts organizations had also been submitted as evidence to the High Court. Iti was eventually allowed to travel for the tour.^[8] Tempest:Without a Body made its New Zealand premier at the Auckland Festival in March 2009.^[9]

[edit] Documentary

Tame Iti has appeared in television over the years. In 2008, Tame Iti featured with his son Toikairakau (Toi) Iti in the New Zealand documentary Children of the Revoulution (2008)^[10] which screened on Maori Television in April of the same year. Children of the Revolution is about the children of political activists in New Zealand and also featured anti-apartheid leader John Minto and his teenage son; Green Party Member of Parliament, Sue Bradford and her journalist daughter Katie Azania Bradford; Maori Party Member of Parliament, Hone Harawira and his wife Hilda Harawira with their daughter Te Whenua Harawira (organiser of the 2004 Seabed and Foreshore Land March) and musician and former political prisoner Tigilau Ness with his son, hip hop artist Che Fu.^[11] The documentary was directed by Makerita Urale and produced by Claudette Hauiti and Maori production company Front of the Box Productions. The documentary won Best Maori Language Programme at the prestigious New Zealand Qantas Television Awards (now called Qantas Film & Television Awards) in 2008.^[12]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Iti goes to court for firearms charges
• Interview in New Zealand Herald
• Mana magazine 1995 article on Iti
• News-item, conviction
• Tame Iti, Feature: Co-Creator (the open project)
• TradeMe-founder Sam Morgan speaks to TV1 about why he removed the flag from sale on TradeMe
• The Ruatoki valley blazes as Tuhoe stands tall — Indigimedia
• Images of Tāme Iti shooting the flag
• Youtube: Tāme Iti on performing arts and culture
• Harvey, Claire "Tribe of terror", The Bulletin, ACP Magazines.
• MAU dance company, NZ
• Front of the Box Productions