Tame Iti

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Tāme Iti (born c.1952) is a Tūhoe Māori activist in New Zealand.

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[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. At the age of 10, school authorities forbad him to speak Māori at school. 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 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 has run a restaurant in Auckland serving traditional Māori food.[1] 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 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 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 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 was appropriate in honouring dead warriors, as in firing a volley over a grave). 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 TradeMe auction site to pay the fine and his legal costs, but the sale - a violation of proceeds of crime legislation - was withdrawn.[2]

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 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 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 "a foolhardy enterprise" and warned him not to attempt anything similar again.[3]

[edit] 2007 terrorism raids

Main article: 2007 New Zealand anti-terror 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.[4][5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Simon Collins. "Tame Iti was on Government payroll", New Zealand Herald, October 20, 2007. 
  2. ^ http://www.tumeke.org
  3. ^ http://www.tv3.co.nz/TameItisconvictionsoverturned/tabid/209/articleID/24482/Default.aspx http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/latest/200704041631/maori_activists_firearms_convictions_overturned http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10432537 http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1.asp?storyID=115198 http://www.newswire.co.nz/main/viewstory.aspx?storyid=366697&catid=30
  4. ^ "Nationwide anti-terrorism raids, 14 arrested", New Zealand Herald, 15 October 2007. Retrieved on [[2007-10-15]]. 
  5. ^ "NZ police hold 17 in terror raids", BBC, 15 October 2007. Retrieved on [[2007-10-15]]. 

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