Review: Mana, by Tāme Iti

I te tuatahi me tuku mihi ahau, ka tika, ki a Matua Tāme Iti i tāna tohatoha i ēnei taonga, i ēnei maramara o tōna oranga whakaohooho. I must start by offering my words of thanks and acknowledgement to Matua Tāme Iti for sharing these insights into his inspiring life. 

He ripoinga mahara a MANA, he pūrākau mō tētahi oranga e ora tonu ana, ā, nā tōna kaumātuatanga, ka mārama tāna titiro whakahoki ki ngā rā o mua. MANA is a memoir, a story of a life still being lived, but with the benefit of hindsight that kaumātuatanga brings. Tāme Iti is an iconic figure, who has lived through and been an active agent in some of our most important moments of Māori political resistance and cultural renaissance. 

Kua tuhi a Iti i te nuinga o tāna tuhinga ki te reo Ingarihi, heoi anō, i ngā wahanga maha kua tuhia ki ngā reo e rua. The text, whilst written predominantly in English, is in many parts wholly bilingual. Iti moves seamlessly between te reo Māori and English, the movement back to te reo Pākehā reinforcing points best made i tō tātou reo rangatira. Hei tangata reo rua, ko ōku wheako i pai te nohoanga o ngā reo e rua, he mea Māori, he mea pai. As someone who is comfortable in both English and te reo Māori, I found the two languages sitting side-by-side comfortable and organic.

He māmā te reo, heoi anō he hōhonu te kōrero. The book is an easy read. Although the topics can be challenging at times, the storytelling is captivating, and the language used is accessible and heartfelt. Whilst organised by themes, the story is presented in largely chronological order. Kua noho a Iti i te ao pāpāho, i te whaitua tūmatanui, i te nuinga o tōna oranga pakeke. Iti’s life, which for most of his adulthood has been sketched out broadly in the media and exist in the public domain, gains a new urgency and freshness when presented first-hand, in his characteristically frank and unpretentious way of storytelling. 

I ako ahau i ngā mea maha i te pānuitanga o ngā mahi i tū ai i mua i taku whānautanga mai. I found the sections around the 1970s and 1980s particularly compelling, mostly because I personally had the least knowledge of the events preceding my own birth, and the first-hand details are an intriguing and crucial viewpoint. The text is accompanied by striking imagery, and John Miller’s photography, in particular, chronicles moments of protest and resistance, capturing important moments in our shared history – Māori and Pākehā. Photographs of Iti’s own artworks, painting and performance, also richly illustrate the book. 

Ko tōna Tūhoetanga te pūtake o tāna tūtohetohe. I whānau mai te riri i roto i a ia i ngā awaawa i Ruatoki, i tōna ūkaipō. Iti’s activism is firmly grounded in his Tūhoetanga, the connections through whakapapa to people and place that give him his place to stand. As an uri of Ngāpuhi (an iwi, perhaps, on the precipice of considering Treaty settlement), I found Iti’s reflections on the Treaty settlement process, where the power of decision-making was removed from the hapū level and placed with the iwi, to be particularly poignant, and perhaps cautionary.

I whakakāngia te ahi i roto i a au nā āna kōrero tautohetohe e pā ana ki te whakahounga anō o te tūāpapa o te pūnaha tōrangapū. Iti’s kōrero is an invocation, a wero, and a call to dismantle the colonial structures, driven from our political base as whānau and hapū. It is a call for constitutional transformation. It is a call for mana motuhake, and tino rangatiratanga. “Get ride of the colonial structure,” writes Iti, “Whakamoehia! Put it to sleep! Nehua! Bury it!” 

Ko ngā whakaaro whakamutunga – ka whakatakoto i tēnei whakatauāki, “ka pū te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi”. In reflecting on a life well lived, with integrity, with mana, Iti now looks to the next generation. Ko te tūmanako, ka taea e te reanga e whai ake nei te whakahaere tonu tāna mahi whakahira, nā te mea ka mōhio kē mātou ko te iwi Māori ka whawhai tonu mātou mō ake tonu atu, tae noa ki te whānau mai o te ao hōu. We must hope and expect that the next generation is able to carry on his important work, because as Māori, we must remain committed to this struggle, until the birth of a new world.