Tame Iti
| Tame Wairere Iti | |
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Tame Iti in 2009
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| Born | c. 1952 Rotorua, New Zealand |
| Political party | Māori Party |
Tame Wairere Iti (born c. 1952) is a Tūhoe Māori activist in New Zealand. He grew up in the Urewera area, and in the late 1960s and 1970s he was involved in protests against the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa, and in many Māori protest actions. His ability to court controversy and his full tā moko make him well-recognised.
With three others he was tried on charges of "illegal possession of firearms and participation in an organised criminal group" in 2012. The jury could not reach a verdict on the charge of belonging to a criminal group, but found all four guilty of firearms charges – and in May 2012, Iti was sentenced to jail for two-and-a-half years for these. He was granted parole in February 2013, and was released on 27 February 2013.
Most associated with Tūhoe, Tame Iti also has links with the Waikato tribes 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, whom Iti calls his grandparents, in the custom known as whāngai (adoption within the same family) on a farm near Ruatoki in the Urewera area. The Purewas had also raised his father. He says that at the age of 10 his school headmaster (himself a Māori) forbade pupils to speak Māori at school. On leaving school, he took up an apprenticeship in painting and decorating after completing a year-long Maori Training Scheme at Christchurch Technical Institute 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 in 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.
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