Artist and activist Hohepa Thompson - also known as Hori - says his biggest regret is turning his back on his culture and identity, but he is now spreading the word about te reo and te ao Māori with love and laughter.
Born and bred in Ōtaki on the Kāpiti Coast where he learnt te reo from a young age, Thompson felt singled out while going to a predominantly Pākehā high school and so made what he describes as "the worst decision" of his life.
"I think in fourth form I kind of decided ... 'I don't want to be that kid anymore, I don't want to be that Māori kid' ... so I decided to remove myself from that world, like no kapa haka, which I always loved and all of that mahi, no more doing any reo at all.
"It was just easier for me to get by living in a Pākehā world and so it completely assimilated me into being this nice little Pākehā boy that won't ruffle anything … I just wanted to be away from it because I was really like pigeon-holed in some classes."
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After leaving the small town, he thought he would never return, but now he is the biggest champion of the place, its people and culture, saying he is always aware that Kāpiti's karu (eyes) are on him.
"When I left and I was travelling around the world and I was playing rugby and that in different places, they loved Māori culture, and that was the thing that I had put away for so long.
"It was actually tauiwi that reminded me of how f***in' amazing our culture was. There wasn't a rugby game that I went to on the bus where they weren't like, 'you don't get off the bus until you do us the haka'.
"When they said that, I was like 'I've been the biggest a******, I need to go home, I need to reawaken whatever this thing is, this taniwha within me', and it's been sitting there inside me for so long and I had to just kind of put all the embarrassment away.
"That is the most important thing for me is for my kids to know that growing up being Māori is not something to be embarrassed about and do not follow my route, because it took so long to get back. But in saying that, without that journey, and realising what I'd done, I probably wouldn't be sitting here and talking to you."
Māori artist Hohepa 'The Hori' Thompson chats in studio with Anika Moa for an episode of It's Personal. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
In 2021, Thompson made headlines when a local business owner kept ripping off the rāpihi (rubbish) stickers he was putting up to campaign for the town as it faced the prospect of fewer customers due to road changes.
"I was just like we have an amazing culture here already, we don't need to come up with a new idea, the culture is here, you need to get on the waka and actually get involved with our community and how special Ōtaki is and how well known Ōtaki is across the motu for its reo, because of Te Wānanga o Raukawa, because of what happened down there with Whakatupuranga Rua Mano and that big idea to revitalise our reo.
"In Ōtaki, it's just everywhere. Even the Indian dairy owner, 'kia ora, kei te pēhea koe?' 'Kei te pai'."
Whether it is doing comedy, art, or running a gallery or coffee shop, Thompson makes sure to integrate his kaupapa, which includes questioning the hints of colonialism in everyday life. It's something that has got him into "some pretty crazy situations", he says.
"It's quite political mahi, my mahi toi, my artwork. The whole whakaaro around it is to challenge both te ao Pākehā and te ao Māori ... the constant kōrero is around bridging the gaps between those two worlds, but also challenging both of those worlds in different kind of creative ways.
"There's the fine artsy peeps that do their stuff and I'm like I wana see some ugly s***. I wana see some s*** that's in your face that's ... I just want to see more people putting stuff out that's quite thought-provoking, especially in the political climate we're in at the moment."
He says people who think conversations about colonialism are no longer relevant because it happened more than 100 years ago need to understand there are lasting implications to this day.
"I think all Māori need to be a little bit more political. I think we are. If you look at what happened with Kiingitanga, especially up at Tūrangawaewae Marae where they started to get this whole, you know, kotahitanga and Kiingitanga kind of go together but like really within the last year, I think there's a real pull to unite not just Māori but tangata tiriti, tauiwi from all around Aotearoa, who are all seeing it, it's blatant as f***.
"Some of the stuff this government is doing is just blatantly trying to reverse everything that is - undo everything."
Thompsonis back with his e hoa Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes on the next part of his hīkoi: Ngā Porokāte, a visual podcast on all things affecting te ao Māori today.
