Tāme Iti

Tāme Wairere Iti (born 1952) is a New Zealand Māori activist, artist, actor and social worker.

Iti was born in 1952.

He descends from the iwi of Ngāi Tūhoe, but also has links with the Waikato iwi of Ngāti Wairere and Ngāti Hauā, and with Te Arawa.

Told he was born on a train near Rotorua, Iti was raised by his great-granduncle and aunt, Hukarere and Te Peku Purewa, in the custom known as whāngai (adoption within the same family) on a farm at Ruatoki in the Urewera area.

The couple had also raised his father, and Iti calls them his grandparents.

He says that at the age of 10 his school headmaster (himself Māori) forbade pupils to speak the Māori language at school.

On leaving school, he took up an apprenticeship in painting and decorating after completing a year-long Māori trade training scheme in Christchurch.

In the 1960s and 1970s Iti was involved in protests against the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa, and in many Māori protest actions as a member of Ngā Tamatoa.

He is also known for his stalwart support of Tūhoe culture and tribal identity.

Iti has stood unsuccessfully for the New Zealand Parliament on four occasions.

Iti is known for his provocative style of protest and multidisciplinary art, which occasionally has courted controversy, and his distinctive dress.

He often wears tailored shirts or coats, as well as top and bowler hats.

In recent years, Iti has become more widely known for his art, which often carries a political message supporting Māori or Tūhoe rights; in 2022 he received a Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand for his works.

As the Māori nationalist movement grew in New Zealand in the late 1960s and 1970s, Iti became involved.

Of Ngāi Tūhoe descent, Iti rose to prominence as a member of the protest group Ngā Tamatoa in 1970s Auckland, becoming a key figure of the Māori protest movement and the Māori renaissance.

Since then, he has become a renowned activist for the rights of Māori and the process of co-governance and decolonisation.

A native speaker of Te Reo Māori, Iti grew up at Ruatoki in Te Urewera, where he was barred from speaking Māori in school due to the government's anti-Māori language policy of the time.

He has three children; two sons with his first wife, Ann Fletcher, who he was married to for six years in the 1970s, and a son through whāngai adoption.

He protested against the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa, and was involved with Ngā Tamatoa, a Māori protest group of the 1970s, from its early days.

He first featured in news reports in 1972, when he put up his father's tent on the New Zealand Parliament grounds and called it the "Māori Embassy", as part of a Ngā Tamatoa protest about Māori land alienation.

He joined the Communist Party of New Zealand, and went to China in 1973 during the Cultural Revolution.

During his time in Christchurch he was a local wrestling champion and had the opportunity to represent New Zealand at the 1974 Commonwealth Games, but did not take it due to his growing interest in activism.

He has taken part in a number of land occupations and was part of the Māori land march to the New Zealand Parliament in 1975.

Iti's activism has often intertwined with his artistic career; Iti sees his activism as a form of art.

In the mid-1980s Iti worked in addiction services supporting young Māori in Ruatoki.

He worked as a radio DJ in the 1990s.

He was a partner in a restaurant on Auckland's Karangahape Road that served traditional Māori food.

In the mid-1990s, Iti set up a collaborative gallery called the Tūhoe Embassy, where artwork was sold to fundraise for Tūhoe self-determination.

His ability to court controversy has made him a frequent feature in New Zealand news media.

He has a full facial moko, and an article for Stuff describes him as having "one of the most recognisable faces in Aotearoa".

He is also known for wearing top and bowler hats, and for performing whakapohane (baring his buttocks) at protests.

Iti stood unsuccessfully for Parliament as a candidate of Mana Māori in the 1996, 1999 and 2002 New Zealand general elections, and for the Māori Party in 2014.

He has been with his long-term partner, Maria Steens, since 1997.

The alcohol-free restaurant, which incorporated an art gallery, opened in 1999 but closed within a year.

Iti was employed by Tūhoe Hauora, a health service, for several years in the 2000s as a social worker dealing with drug and alcohol problems.

He also co-produced and starred in the film Muru, inspired by the events of the 2007 police raids and by the Crown's historic treatment of Tūhoe.

In 2022 he presented an art exhibition I Will Not Speak Māori as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the 1972 Māori language petition.

For his extensive activism in support of tino rangatiratanga, indigenous rights and the Māori language, Iti has been described by Wellington City Council as a national treasure.

In 2015 Iti gave a talk for TEDx Auckland about his years of activism.

In 2016, he said: "Over time, I had to get smart about how to exercise my political consciousness, and I discovered that art is probably the safest way I'm able to do that."