"You could begin with his formative school years at the foot of Te Urewera ranges, where he was made to write the lines I will not speak Maori as punishment for speaking his language lines that have since become a prominent feature of his art and activism. Or the time he pitched a tent outside parliament, his hair long, his face not yet lined with his distinctive full-face tattoo, and pronounced it the Maori embassy, making front page news."
"Or the time he was arrested in the infamous 2007 Te Urewera raids, during which police raided the Tuhoe people, under the mistaken belief that Iti was building a domestic terrorist network. The police later apologised to Tuhoe. Iti who was this year a finalist in the New Zealander of the Year awards has been making headlines for more than five decades. Now, he is telling the story of his own beginnings."
Tame Iti endured punitive assimilation at school, forced to write the line I will not speak Maori as punishment for using his language. He asserted Māori sovereignty by pitching a tent outside parliament and declaring it the Māori embassy. He helped organise the 1975 Māori Land March, a catalyst for the creation of the Waitangi Tribunal to investigate breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. He was arrested during the 2007 Te Urewera raids amid accusations of domestic terrorism, and police later apologised to Tuhoe. He has remained a prominent figure in Indigenous activism for over five decades and appears in photographs wearing his distinctive bowler hat alongside his art and fellow justice campaigners.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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