Tāme Iti, Patu!, Muru, and Herbs
Tāme Iti is a Māori activist and artist from Aoterea New Zealand.
I first noticed him in the documentary Patu! by the film maker Merata Mita.
The documentary charts the anti-Apartheid protests that took place across Aoterea New Zealand in the winter of 1981, before and during a South African rugby tour. You can see the full documentary here:
In Patu! Tāme appears as a young man without moko.
Many years later, in 2015, he spoke about his life, activism and the power of knowing who you are in this TEDxAuckland Talk:
There is also a documentary from 2015 about his life and his involvement in the 2007 New Zealand police raids, The Price of Peace.
The 2007 police raids were also dramatised in a 2022 film Muru directed by Tearepa Kahi and starring Tāme Iti as himself, and Cliff Curtis among a fine cast:
You can read more about Tāme in his book Mana here:
Tāme has a website and is on Facebook and Instagram.
The Patu! documentary also features great reggae music by Herbs.
"It's one thing to hold a placard, chant and march against a dragon. It's another to pick up a red guitar and slay the dragon with reggae, and that's Herbs" – Producer Reikura Kahi on Herbs and the power of their music, The NZ Herald, 17 June 2019
There is also a fantastic Herbs documentary, Songs of Freedom available here:
The film Muru, ends with a beautiful song, Matemateāone, sung in te reo Māori and English by Stan Walker (who starred in Tearepa Kahi's film Mt. Zion):
