Maori radical awaiting trial on gun charges to perform in Europe

May 6, 2008, 0:59 GMT

Wellington - New Zealand's best-known Maori radical, who is awaiting trial on charges of possessing weapons in alleged terrorist training camps, is to star in a dance play to be performed in five European countries, it was reported Tuesday.

A High Court judge has relaxed strict bail conditions imposed on Tame Iti, who was arrested after a series of police raids in October in the North Island Urewera region of his Tuhoe tribe, to let him leave the country, the Dominion Post reported.

Iti, whose face is heavily tattooed in traditional Maori style, is a persistent campaigner for sovereignty for the Tuhoe people, who are known as 'children of the mist' and live in the remote Urewera mountain range.

He and 18 others have been charged with possessing a variety of weapons, including semiautomatic rifles and Molotov cocktails.

Iti is to perform with a 15-member Maori group called the Mau Dance Company, which will make a four-week European tour with a production called Tempest II, based on Shakespeare's The Tempest.

The group will leave Saturday and perform in Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Germany and Britain, the Dominion Post said.

It quoted choreographer Lemi Ponifasio as saying that Iti was a 'really, really beautiful' performer.

'His protest experience means he knows the audience and will be able to reach out and deliver. It gives him a platform to speak about what is happening in our own backyard and around the world.'