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 laugh.

Born and raised in Ōtaki on the Kāpiti Coast where he learned te reo from an early age, Thompson felt isolated while attending a predominantly Pākehā high school and thus took what he describes as ” the worst decision of his life.

“I think in year four I kind of decided… ‘I don’t want to be that kid anymore, I don’t want to be that Māori kid anymore’… so I decided to step away from that world, like no kapa haka, which I always loved and all that mahi, I don’t do reo at all anymore.

“It was just easier for me to live in a Pākehā world and so it completely assimilated me into being this nice little Pākehā boy who wouldn’t bother anything… I just wanted to get away from it because I was really like a pigeon-hole in certain classes.

After leaving the small town, he thought he would never return, but he is now the biggest defender of the place, its people and its culture, saying he is always aware that the karu (eyes) of Kāpiti are glued on him.

“When I left and I was traveling around the world and playing rugby and different places, they loved Māori culture, and that was the thing that I had put aside for so long.

“Actually, it was the tauiwi that reminded me how incredible our culture was. There wasn’t a rugby match I went to on the bus where they didn’t say, ‘You’re not getting off not from the bus”. bus until you give us the haka’.

“When they said that, I was like, ‘I’ve been the biggest asshole, I need to go home, I need to wake up this thing, whatever it is, this taniwha inside me,’ and it’s been there inside me for so long and I’ve had to somehow put all that embarrassment aside.

“That’s the most important thing for me is that my children know that growing up as Māori is not something awkward and that they don’t follow my route because it took so long to come back. But in saying that, without this trip, and realizing what I had done, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here 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 (litter) stickers he put up to campaign for the town, facing the prospect of a reduction in customers due to route changes.

“I was like we already have an amazing culture here, we don’t need to come up with a new idea, the culture is here, you need to get into the waka and actually get involved in our community and how Ōtaki is special and how Ōtaki is known across the motu for his reo, because of Te Wānanga o Raukawa, because of what happened there with Whakatupuranga Rua Mano and this great idea of ​​revitalizing our reo. .

“In Ōtaki, it’s all over the place. Even the owner of the Indian dairy, ‘kia ora, kei te pēhea koe?’ ‘Kei pays you’.”

Whether it’s comedy, art, or running a gallery or cafe, Thompson makes sure to incorporate his kaupapa, which means questioning allusions to colonialism in everyday life . It’s something that has put him in “some pretty crazy situations,” he says.

“It’s quite a political mahi, my mahi you, my work of art. The whole whakaaro around it is to challenge both te ao Pākehā and te ao Māori… the constant kōrero is about bridging the divide between these two worlds, but also to challenge both worlds in different creative ways.

“There’s artistic people doing their thing and I’m like, I want to see ugly s***. I want to see s*** that’s in your face, it’s… I just want to see more people putting stuff on .It gives food for thought, especially in the political climate we currently find ourselves in.”

He says those who think discussions about colonialism are no longer relevant because it happened more than 100 years ago need to understand that the implications are lasting until today.

“I think all Māori need to be a little bit more political. I think we are. If you look at what happened with Kiingitanga, particularly at Tūrangawaewae Marae, where they started to figure all this out, you know , Kotahitanga and Kiingitanga are kind of going together but like really over the last year, I think there’s a real pull to unite not just the Māori but the tangata tiriti, the tauiwi of all. Aotearoa, who all see it, it’s blatant as fuck.

“Some of the things this government is doing is just blatantly trying to overthrow everything that is, to undo everything.”

Thompson is back with his e hoa Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes in the next part of his hikoi: Ngā Porokatea visual podcast about all things Māori today.