Tāme Iti's tales 'WHAT I FIND MAGICAL'

The national treasure shares some surprising stories from his colourful life

- Elisabeth Easther

Tāme Iti (Ngāi Tūhoe) is an activist, an artist and an icon. To reflect on his rich life, Tame has written his longawaited memoir. With tales of growing up in Te Uruwera, of being barred from speaking te reo Māori at school, and his evolution as an activist and an artist, he writes of marching in support of land rights in the 1970s, to protesting against war, apartheid and colonisation. Mana is a wise, dignified meditation on identity and the quest for justice.

It was two when I was left at the house of the old couple who brought me up.

It was 1954 and Te Pēku and Hukarere Purewa found me on the table in a nail box when they came in from milking. That's how my koro, my nanny, and I came to raise me, and they were my Mum and Dad until they passed.

I've known all the nooks and crannies of Ruatoki since I was a boy. I know where the eels are and the eggs, and where to graze horses and cows. More than just hills and farmland, the marae and the maunga [mountain] – this landscape is an intricate, intimate part of me.

Even though our principal was Māori and a relation, he told us we couldn't speak te reo Māori at school. But a small group of us decided to talk about Peyton Place in te reo because television had just come to Ruatoki. For our punishment, we were given two choices: to pick up horse and cow manure or write 100 lines on the blackboard: 'I will not speak Māori'. Which was the punishment I chose. When I told the old man what happened at school that day, Dad just said the teacher was the rangatira [chief] and we had to do what he said.