Tuhoe - History of Resistance

A documentary about the struggle for justice of the Tuhoe people of Te Urewera, Aotearoa (New Zealand)

Resistencia del Pueblo Tuhoe

Entrevista con Tame Iti, activista por la soberanía de la Nación Tuhoe, en Nueva Zelanda





John Key is a smiling snake who talks a load of kaka

Labour party humiliated by protest at election congress

The Labour Party and its cabal of ministers including Cullen, Maharey, King, Laban, Goff and Horomia were humiliated at a protest today outside of their election year congress by people holding them responsible for a range of issues. Helen Clark’s speech was interrupted and ministers were forced outside when a fire alarm went off at approximately 2:20pm. Cullen sought refugee behind his mummy as he walked outside, but that didn’t stop him being confronted by people who had been arrested on October 15th.

Members of the Labour Party assaulted people in an attempt to protect their ‘co-leader’ from being targeted. The October 15th Solidarity crew along with whanau from Te Urewera organised a march that went through town in advance of their arrival at the Labour Party Conference. Around 100 protestors gathered at 12noon at Te Aro Park and marched to the Town Hall. For approximately an hour, there was noisy demonstration with a sit-in blockade at one entrance.

1 | 2 | Protest Report | Raids on 15th October 2007 | Links | Aoteaoa Indymedia Features

Protest Report

The Labour Party and its cabal of ministers including Cullen, Maharey, King, Laban, Goff and Horomia were humiliated at a protest today outside of their election year congress by people holding them responsible for a range of issues. Helen Clark’s speech was interrupted and ministers were forced outside when a fire alarm went off at approximately 2:20pm. Cullen sought refugee behind his mummy as he walked outside, but that didn’t stop him being confronted by people who had been arrested on October 15th. Members of the Labour Party assaulted people in an attempt to protect their ‘co-leader’ from being targeted. The October 15th Solidarity crew along with whanau from Te Urewera organised a march that went through town in advance of their arrival at the Labour Party Conference. Around 100 protestors gathered at 12noon at Te Aro Park and marched through Cuba Mall, Manners and Willis Street. “Ka whawhai tonu matou, ake ake ake!”, “One solution – Revolution!”, “1, 2, 3, 4 – Labour Party out the door” and “When Tuhoe/128/Workers’ Rights are under attack – stand up, fight back” were chanted on the march. Upon arrival, the march was met with a large police presence and a metal barricade. For approximately an hour, there was noisy demonstration with a sit-in blockade at one entrance.

Ministers and members of the Labour Party were forced to walk along the barricaded area while being heckled and shamed for their actions as they walked into the Town Hall. Helen Clark’s speech was supposed to start at 2pm. However, shortly afterwards, we heard news that the fire alarm went off and the Labour Party delegates started streaming out of the building (with Clark nowhere to be seen). Again, they were yelled at by the protest outside.

The Labour party, and Helen Clark in particular, bear primary responsibility for the nation-wide police raids of October 15th 2007, the invasion and lock-down of the township of Ruatoki and the passage of a raft of so-called ‘terrorism laws’. These laws, almost all of which have been directly imported from George W Bush’s ‘war on terrorism’ in the US, demonstrate Labour’s complicity in the oppression of people both in Aotearoa and around the world.

Operation 8 was motivated by the Labour government’s fear about tino rangatiratanga, about Te Mana Motuhake o Tuhoe and about real sovereignty for the indigenous people of Aotearoa. The government is scared of losing power, and of losing access to resources such as freshwater, minerals and oil and gas. It used its violent, coercive wing, the Armed Offenders Squad, to reinforce its power in Te Urewera on 15 October last year. The Labour government wills stop at nothing to retain power this year, including more acts of state violence and brutality against Maori people.

The people of Aotearoa are under attack, its time we stand up and fight back.

Police raids on 15th October 2007

On Monday, October 15th 2007, more than 300 police carried out dawn raids on dozens of houses all over Aotearoa / New Zealand. Police claim the raids were in response to 'concrete terrorist threats' from indigenous activists. The reality, however, included heavily armed police terrorising an entire township. To date, no evidence of the so-called terrorist plot has been revealed.

Police arrested 17 indigenous, anarchist, environmental and anti-war activists, including people from Tūhoe, Te Atiawa, Maniapoto and Pakeha. Police wanted to charge 12 people under the Terrorism Suppression Act (TSA), however the Solicitor-General denied the police permission to proceed. After four weeks in jail everyone was released on bail. On Tuesday, February 19th 2007, police raided further properties, arresting 3 more men. All were released on bail with strict conditions that same day.

19 people are facing charges under the Arms Act, in a trial that could take several years. Although out of jail, they have very strict bail conditions that deny them freedom of movement and association. On this site you can find out how to get involved in local support groups, dates and locations of solidarity events are happening and how to make a donation.

Links: October 15th Solidarity | Te Mana Motuhake o Tuhoe | AoCafe | Civil Rights Defence | Te Kotahi a Tuhoe | Tūhoe: History of resistance | Tu Kotahi - Freedom Fighting Anthems

Aotearoa IMC Features: Police raid houses across Aotearoa under anti-terrorism legislation, at least a dozen arrests (15 Oct. 07) | 17 activists arrested, denied bail. 300+ Police raid houses across the country (15 Oct. 07) | Solidarity with the Urewera 17! Free them now! (17 Oct. 07) | Stop the Terror Laws! Free our Friends! (19 Oct. 07) | "Raise your voice before you lose your soul" - protests across Aotearoa (20 Oct. 07) | Urewera 17 Update: Bail Denied, Another Police Raid, Another Activist Named, Wellington Activists Moved (26 Oct. 07) | Across the world, people demand freedom for political prisoners! (27 Oct. 07) | Urewera 16 in court - 2 more bailed (2 Nov. 07) | 150 People Protest Labour Conference in Tamaki Makaurau (3 Nov. 07) | Two more prisoners lose name supression (7 Nov. 07) | No terrorism charges for the Urewera 16! (8 Nov. 07) | Tuhoe Hikoi Arrives at Parliament (14 Nov. 07) | The struggle continues… (19 Nov. 07) | Thousands gather in solidarity with October 15th arrestees and against the Terrorism Supression Act (1 Dec. 07) | Tame Iti back in jail for one night (11 Dec. 07) | UN to investigate New Zealand Government over conduct of the Oct 15 raids (26 Jan. 08) | Waitangi Day protests across Aotearoa (6 Feb. 08) | More Raids, 3 More Arrests in Tuhoe (19 Feb. 08) | La Lucha Sigue… Protests against raids and arrests (23 Feb. 08) | 'Operation 8' defendants back in court on March 5th (3 Mar. 2008) | Labour Party conference to be held responsible for Operation 8

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Related

• http://october15thsolidarity.info

Tame Iti

Waitangi Day , and Tame Iti is the manifestation of every Pakeha's worst nightmare. Sturdily built and proudly bearing an intricate moko covering the entirety of his face, he spits in front of the Governor General, Cath Tizard, before delivering his piece de resistance, a whakapohane, a baring of the buttocks - an action hard to top on the list of Maori insults. His face is flashed on news bulletins around the world: beware the dangerous face of Maori radicalism.

t is said that when he was about a month old he arrived in Ruatoki in a disused mail box which was placed on the table of the wharekai at Mahurehure. His whangai parents, Hukarere and Te Peku Purewa, an elderly couple who had raised Tame's father and 14 children of their own, took him home. All told, they raised 26 whangai children. Tame himself is a socal worker dealing with substance abuse and domestic violence issues in his home valley he's lucky that his partner Karen and his whanau are so supportive of him, says longtime associate Tamati Kruger "his home is like a bloody marae. I mean, the man needs a licence just to operate his carpark. It must be the most active marae in Tuhoe."

Growing up in the heart of Tuhoe country where the spectres of Te Kooti and Rua Kenana maintain an almost tangible presence, the seeds for Maori nationalism were firmly planted in the mind of young Tame Iti. Each Sunday he would accompany Te Purewa on a kai gathering expedition, and at the foot of Taiarahia, the sacred mountain of Ruatoki, they would stop to spear eels. On these occasions, Te Purewa would point to the land occupied by the Pakeha families and talk about injustices and grievances that, decades later, continue to haunt Tame. "Dad called them whanako - stolen lands. He didn't talk about raupatu or confiscation. They were lands stolen by the Pakeha last century" says Tame. He speaks quietly but resolutely, often changing to Maori to emphasise a point."On another dav he said to me, 'see that lake over there, that's where my young brother was shot by a Pakeha". When asked why or how that had happened he replied, 'there was no reason, the Pakeha was trying to intimidate him and ending up shooting him dead'." The Pakeha neighbour was never arrested or taken to court, but a little while later he was found dead - hanging from a tree.

For those in the know, Tame lti is no Hone come lately He's been involved in Maori protest for much of his life, prepared, according to Tamati Kruger, to risk the wrath of his elders and "walk his talk". Tame was just a nipper when he staged his first show of defiance. "The principal of the school here in Ruatoki told us that we had to speak English. I didn't want to do that. To me if vou didn't speak Maori, you weren't a Maori." The punishment for defiance was to join a squad which picked up horse dung. Given the popularity of horse traffic in Ruatoki it was a substantial punishment.At 15 he left the security of Ruatoki and headed for Christchurch and a strange, new world outside the valley. Increasingly, he became drawn into political struggle against the system. It was a crucial stage in Tame's life, providing him with the political ideology that would lead to more than two decades of direct anti-authority action. He joined in the "No Maori, no tour" protest, read about communism and went to China in the early 1970s, followed the American Black Panther movement, and helped set up the Maori Liberation Front, before moving north to Auckland where he met up with Syd and Hana Jackson and others who would eventially become key members of Nga Tamatoa.

Over the years Tame has been the brains behind some exceedingly novel protest action. In the 197Os he and some mates decided that Maori were such strangers in this land that thev needed to set up an embassy Borrowing a small tent from his birth father in Huntly, he made his way south. In Wellington he pitched his tent beneath Dick Seddon's statue in Parliament ground, lectured the lunchtime passersby until, feeling bit tuckered out, he stretched out his bedroll, zipped up the tent and had a snooze. A couple of hours later he was politely woken by an elderly policeman. Explaining that he was Tame Iti, the new Maori ambassador, he then wangled his way into the office of the then Maori Affairs Minister, Duncan McIntyre -some say to present his credentials. The episode ended in TV cameras, handcuffs and the "ambassador" being subjected to Her Majesty's hospitality for the night.

Then there was the time when Tame decided to stop an annual jet boat race up the Whakatane river that local kaurnatua had felt powerless to prevent. Getting nowhere by politely phoning the Pakeha race organiser, Tame plunged into the river; watched by nervous whanaunga from a convenient viewing platform. As the first boat approached he closed his eyes to karakia, opening them just in time to eyeball an irate jet boat driven In the split second in which their eves met, the driver swerved and ran into the willows lining the bank. It earnt Tame six months of PD cutting blackberry, though after two weeks he appealed his sentence -but that's another story.. Undeterred, the following year Tame was back in the river again, on horseback this time and with a few rnates for company There were more arrests - but no more jet boat races.
Earlier this year at the Mataatua hui to discuss the fiscal envelope, Tame startled Doug Graham by mounting a stepladder he had brought for the occasion. When it was his turn to talk, he stated his case and then handed a bewildered Doug Graham a blanket. "It was a symbolic gesture - a blanket for our stolen land," says Tame.
His embassy theme has been resurrected with the setting up of the Tuhoe Embassy in the middle of the Taneatua township. Tame is serious about his mission to build a "Tuhoe Nation".

The embassy, a caravan with a makeshift awning, is staffed by some of the iwi's rangatahi. Late last year Tame (the Tuhoe Ambassador) issued eviction notices to Pakeha landowners on Maori land in the area. Reactions were mixed. says Tame: "one farmer said that before Tuhoe ever got hold of his farm he would flatten everything with his bulldozer others studied the paper carefully and said, 'do you have the support of your people in this?' and so on. "The purpose of the notices was to let them know this is Tuhoe territory" he continues. "I don't expect them to move out next week. When we regain our sovereignty they're welcome to stay. They can come to our marae and talk to us and we will shelter and feed them. But once we regain our sovereignty then they need to know that thev will be living under Tuhoe rules. "I came back here to Ruatoki because this is where I belong; for me it's where everything begins and finishes. This is Tuhoe land and it should be run according to our tikanga."

According to Tamati Kruger Tame has learnt that a Maori nationalist has to be prepared to do it alone. "He does what he does because he believes in it. If nobody turns up to a protest he won't go home he'll do it by himself. He's very much like his tupuna Te Purewa in that respect. If 90 percent of Tuhoe said to him to shut up, he'd just carry on. He has that sort of resoluteness and determination.
"But, to be fair, in all the vears I've attended hui with him I've never heard a kaumatua criticise his actual politics or ideals. It's more the delivery they have a problem with." Many who don't know him assume, and his moko probably has something to do with it, that Tame is a violent man. Nothing could be further from the truth. As one friend says, "he's alwavs there to help people out. He quite often has battered or scared wives turning up at his place and he'll meet them at the gate to take them in. And you can bet some of the husbands who turn up there are real pissed off. Tame puts himself on the line all the time."

TV producer Puhi Rangiaho, who grew up with Tame, says it's that sort of commitment that means people take him for granted. "People back home don't really realise how much work he's done for the tribe and for Maori."
But Tame says it's not recognition he's after "I don't see myself as the great leader here. A lot of the time the rangatahi do the work like at the embassy, I just keep an eve on it."

Whether he likes it or not he is an "identity". Having a rull facial moko in the last years of the 20th century is a powerful statement. It took Tame five years of thinking and consultation with his koroua before he subjected himself to the pain of the moko. Because of the pain, it took 10 hours, spread out over four months. According to Tame some of the most surprising reactions have come from Pakeha.
"They're positive, too. I see them staring at me. l was at an airport and a young woman came up with her child and said, 'that's a moko son'. She didn't say tattoo, she said moko. That surprised me. The only negative reaction I've had has been from the media."

http://aotearoa.wellington.net.nz/he/tame.html



The Ruatoki valley blazes as Tuhoe stands tall

http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/28216/index.php

and if your a fan of Tama shooting that nz flag wipe:

http://uriohau.blogspot.com/2007/03/tuhoe-history-of-resistance.html

Tame Iti's firearm convictions overturned on appeal

Maori activist Tame Iti has had his convictions for unlawfully possessing a firearm overturned by the Court of Appeal.

Iti, of the Tuhoe iwi, discharged a shotgun during a welcome for the arrival of the Waitangi Tribunal to hear historical grievance claims at a marae at Ruatoki, in the eastern Bay of Plenty in January 2005.

One shot shredded a New Zealand flag.

Iti was found guilty under the Arms Act on two counts of possessing a firearm in a public place except for some lawful purpose and was fined $300.

He appealed the convictions on the grounds that crown law did not stretch to the ceremonial area in front of a marae's wharenui.

The Appeal Court judges said they had two issues to consider in the appeal. Firstly, whether the atea (area) of Tauaarau marae was a "public place" and, secondly, whether Iti's acknowledged possession of the gun was "without lawful purpose".

In their findings, Justices Hammond, O'Regan and Wilson said it was important to be clear that the case did not question the "important historic event" taking place that day, and events were considered in that context.

Iti argued that he possessed the shotgun "for the express purpose of welcoming the Waitangi Tribunal". This included the discharging of live rounds.

The judges found that the consequence of "requisite harm" from Iti's actions had not been established to a criminal standard of proof.

The prosecution must therefore fail and the convictions be set aside, they ruled.

They warned that discharging the live rounds was "a foolhardy enterprise" and they hoped that Tuhoe recognised that, and would not repeat the behaviour again "even in the unique setting of something like this particular event".


Tame Iti's convictions overturnedWed-04-Apr-2007 11:53am

Maori activist Tame Iti has had his convictions for unlawfully possessing a firearm overturned by the Court of Appeal.

He discharged a shotgun during a welcome for the Waitangi Tribunal to hear historical grievance claims at a Ruatoki marae at Ruatoki in 2005. One shot shredded a New Zealand flag.

The Tuhoe activist was found guilty under the Arms Act on two counts of possessing a firearm in a public place except for some lawful purpose.

He appealed the convictions on the grounds that crown law did not stretch to the ceremonial area in front of a marae's wharenui.

His lawyer, Annette Sykes, says Iti was elated at the news when he found out at midday.

http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/NewsDisplay/tabid/209/articleID/24482/Default.aspx

http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/47136/index.php

Tuhoe-A history of Resistance