Ae Marika! 5 March 2013 – Tame Iti & Ralph Hotere – by Hone Harawira

Posted on March 5, 2013 by admin in Ae Marika

Tame Iti got outta jail last week so I popped up to Waikato to catch up with him. Tame’s name is linked in everyone’s mind with Tuhoe, but his mum is from Ngati Wairere and his “coming out” breakfast was at his mum’s marae at Hukanui. Tame’s a little bit greyer around the gills but he’s still as naturally articulate, staunch, and as cheeky as he was before he went in. He’s out now, he’ll be spending a bit of time locked away in the Urewera and then I look forward to hookin’ up with him again to see what plans he’s got.

Tame is one of the old Nga Tamatoa crew, but one with a difference. Nga Tamatoa fought for the revival of the Maori language back in the early 70’s, but none of them could speak Maori … except Tame of course, and the funny thing was that back then Tame could hardly speak any English!!

Tame is also an artist, not a Ralph Hotere of course, but a bloody good artist anyway. He painted a stick once as a koha for our marae, and whenever I see it I marvel at the talent of a man who has more strings to his bow than most people can imagine. Go Tame!

Ralph Hotere of course is a different kettle of fish. In artistic terms, he’s “da man” and even lying in state at Matihetihe marae in Mitimiti he’s clearly a special character. Sent out in glorious style from a cathedral in Dunedin and choppered in to a small rural outpost on the West Coast of the far north, Ralph Hotere has finally come home after a celebrated life as New Zealand’s pre-eminent artist who used the colour black to express his view of the world in ways that have become uniquely his own.

I only met him a couple of times; way back when he used to hang out with another rascal of the far north, New Zealand’s poet laureate, Hone Tuwhare. Back then there was a fresh and vibrant new dynamic within Maoridom – the emerging radicalism of Nga Tamatoa and the recognition of a contemporary field of Maori art out of which was born the Maori Artists and Writers Conference – and Ralph, Hone, and many, many others moved freely and comfortably between both worlds.

And even though they were both a lot older than me, and even though they always seemed to be quite earnest about their endeavours, they always seemed to be like a couple of mischief kids plotting to cause trouble. And of course … they did … to the joy of all who knew them both. In their worlds, in their fields, they were both special.

And for some strange reason, they both found their calling and grew into the dominating influences of their fields of artistic endeavour way down in the deep south of the South Island, a world away from their home marae, where the weather is decidedly colder and the population is considerably whiter, and the language was exclusively English. And yet, flourish they did, and the world is a greater place for their having made that journey and for having settled in those places and fallen in love with the people there.

Mitimiti is a tiny little place with no great pretensions to grandeur, but it is the home that Ralph Hotere never forgot, and the home that he has finally come back to.

Haere e te rangatira, haere. Hoki atu ki te kainga o te aniwaniwa, hoki atu ki te iwi kua ngaro, kia tae atu ki to hoa a Tuwhare, haututu ai.

AE MARIKA is an article written every week by Hone Harawira, leader of the MANA Movement and Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau. You are welcome to use any of the comments and to ascribe them to Mr Harawira. The full range of Hone’s articles can be found on the MANA website at www.mana.net.nz.