Tūhoe activist Tāme Iti says what scares him is not responding to injustice and turning your back, as he reflects on a life of resistance spanning half a century.
From his childhood in Ruatoki, he was on the frontlines of the Springbok Tour protests, the 1975 land march, and even tried to join North Vietnamese fighters during the Vietnam War.
At times, the 73-year-old was a controversial figure. But after five decades at the centre of the fight for Māori rights, he reflected on his life of protest and art in a new memoir.
Having purposefully walked a fine line between peace and war, Iti said in the intervening years, there was now a sense of “letting go of the layers” as he found “peace in myself”, he told Q+A’s Jack Tame from his studio in Whakatāne.
“I think we’re all trying to find a peace in ourselves, in a way that we can move forward. Not to be too judgemental about things, and you have to let go of those,” he said.
“Sometimes we carry, we tend to respond, reacting to government policy – sometimes we get bogged down on that. Yeah, and I think, more so, now, move on.”
Iti said he wouldn’t allow himself to be bothered by the thoughts of politicians, adding that it was “just an opinion”.
“So, I have an opinion; they have an opinion. So, I’m not going to become destructive. And so I focus more about where I’m going to now. And this is what I do. And now, there I found a niche place there, where I can still practice my tikanga e kaua.”
But what scared him most, he said, was “not doing anything” in the face of injustice.
“You know, us not doing anything, not responding to things that we see, what we see and what we hear. And turning your back. That scares me.”
Iti was pensive as he spoke of his hopes for the future.
“I think we’ve got to build. We’ve got to build a place there that allowed all of us with a different opinion, with no judgements. So, they allow us to be different. That allow you with your korero, with your reo Pākehā. And allow me with my Tūhoe mita, with my Ngāpuhi mita and all around the motu, allow it to be all of that.
“I think the future is that – a home, warm, good clean water, a space there that we can share the space and be kind to each other. Te ana whakamua mea pai.”
Mana by Tāme Iti is available from October 14.
For the full interview, watch the video above
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
