“Mana”: Tāme Iti’s New Memoir of Resistance, Identity, and Hope

Dale Husband Tame Iti | Rangatira Māori, Activist, Artist, Actor

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Yesterday (Sept 14, 1975) marked fifty years since a hīkoi led by Dame Whina Cooper set out from Te Hāpua in Northland to Parliament in Wellington, with the primary aim to protest against the continuing loss of Māori land. Tāme Iti, the Ngāi Tūhoe activist, artist, performer and te reo Māori champion, is set to release a major memoir titled Mana on 14 October 2025. He talks to us about his mahi in activism, his forthcoming book and where to from here.

Mana promises to be more than a personal history. It is the story of a life shaped by colonialism, protest, movement, silence, speaking up-and the long road to embodying one of Māori culture’s most powerful concepts: mana.

Some of the key themes include:

• Resistance and resilience: Iti recounts his involvement in land marches, protest movements, and the fight for tino rangatiratanga.

• Language journey: He shares how, as a child, he was silenced from speaking Māori at school, and how that journey shaped him as someone who has become a strong advocate for te reo Māori revitalisation.

• Personal cost and connection: The cost of activism, being misunderstood, confronting the law, and the relationships and people who have walked with him-supporters, comrades, critics.

• Identity, dignity, authority: What it means to hold mana-what it is, whether it can be taken, how it is earned or expressed. Identity, integrity and self-determination are at the core.

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