BY NATHAN SIMMS
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand -Prominent Maori activist Tame Iti has been speaking out around the country against a police frame-up of himself and other Maori rights fighters in the Bay of Plenty. Iti and fellow activist Tekaha face kidnapping charges, and Tekaha and Laurie Davis have been charged with stealing a valuable painting.

Speaking to Militant reporters July 18 outside the District Court in the Bay of Plenty town of Whakatane, Tekaha said that "all this [pressure from the courts and police], and their lack of evidence, leads us to the absolute conviction that this is not a law and order case, but a political case."

Iti and Tekaha described the background to the frame- up. In early June, the Urewera Mural, a painting by the late artist Colin McCahon, with a reported value of $NZ1.2 million ($1NZ = US$0.64), was stolen from a Conservation Department visitor center at Lake Waikaremoana.

As a part of what they call "Operation Art," police have raided a number of Maori homes in the Ruatoki area, openly stating that they would put pressure on the community to find the missing painting. Local resident Sandre Kruger told the New Zealand Herald that police seemed to be baiting and harassing activists in the area.

In one of these raids, Iti was woken in the early hours of the morning and charged with kidnapping two teenagers at gunpoint and beating them. Four days later, Tekaha and Laurie Davis were charged with the theft of the painting, which remains missing.

The activists said they had been hauled before other courts. In Rotorua July 4, Iti had to answer a charge of conspiring to defeat the course of justice by approaching a witness, and was held in custody for 10 days before being granted bail by the High Court in Auckland.

The defendants describe the charges as politically motivated. Iti, an artist and well-known political figure, has addressed several meetings, including a Militant Labour Forum of nearly 40 people in Auckland August 15 and a public meeting of 150 people in Christchurch on September 23, organized by Action for an Independent Aoteoroa. In Christchurch he shared the platform with veteran Maori rights campaigner Eva Rickard. The theme of the meeting was "The Struggle for Maori Self-Determination: Indigenous Rights in Aotearoa in the 1990s."

Iti said he and others have drawn the ire of the police and authorities for their active opposition to racist discrimination, past and present. "Basically, we're doing what we've been doing since 1866," he said.

In that year, he explained, the New Zealand colonial government confiscated nearly 400,000 acres of land from local tribes for their supposed involvement in the murder of a missionary, and for supporting neighboring Waikato tribes in their resistance to land-grabbing wars. His own tribe, Tuhoe, lost 56,000 acres. Since that time, Maori have resisted further encroachments, and fought for the return of confiscated lands.

Tuhoe activists have established an embassy in the town of Taneatua. Iti explained that during their raids the police invaded the embassy. "We see ourselves as guardians of the border," he said. "We don't recognize the authority of the crown."

This stance has particularly incensed the police. In a television interview, the officer in charge of Operation Art, Detective Inspector Graham Bell, complained that "these people consider themselves outside of the laws of New Zealand." Iti stated Bell had boasted to him of his grandfather's leadership of a police operation in 1916 against the Maori settlement founded by Tuhoe leader Rua Kenana. Two Maori were killed as the police arrested Kenana on a charge of sedition, for calling on Maori not to enlist in the New Zealand army in World War I.

Iti assured those at the Christchurch meeting that Tuhoe activists and other fighters would not be cowed by recent attacks on democratic rights. "They're not going to stop us from talking. We're still going to speak out." He warned, "It could happen to any one of you."

During the meeting a collection was taken to contribute towards Iti's NZ$20,000 court costs. Readers who want to contribute to the defense effort can send checks to: P.O. Box 12, Taneatua, New Zealand.  
 
 
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