If the hat fits

Like a gorse-cutter, artist and activist Tāme Iti has devoted his life to kicking against the pricks.

- MICHELE HEWITSON

Tāme Iti is partial to a pōtae. He has worn a number of hats. He went through a phase, when he was a young fella, of sporting a Che Guevara beret. He likes bowler hats and top hats. He is particularly fond of his Napoleonic bicorne. He is eagerly awaiting the delivery of a bright red bowler. He doesn't know how many hats he has but it is a lot.

He is, weirdly maybe, a sort of celebrity endorser of hats. Hills Hats in Lower Hutt makes them for him, to his own designs, and gratis. Here he is on the cover of his recently released memoir, Mana, wearing a very fine bowler hat. The title of the book is blood red, in thick brush strokes. He will wear the red bowler hat on book tours. He will be accessorised.

But his hats are not mere accessories. They are subversive. He dresses up, sometimes, as a colonial toff in a top hat and a bow tie. Sometimes he wears mock military dress attire. He is mocking the colonists and the colonial military. He is mocking dandies while also being a dandy.

He's sort of a celebrity. If he is a celebrity he is an unlikely one. He must be one because he was on Celebrity Treasure Island in 2023. He got crook - he had a dodgy leg and also has diabetes - and left the show early. He has been invited to appear on Dancing with the Stars.

He likes hats because he likes being subversive, because he likes dressing up. Also because he is eccentric. He likes fine things and fashion and his book is a very handsome tome.

LIFE IS THEATRE

He wrote it with one of his sons, Toi Kai Rākau Iti, and journalist Eugene Bingham.