Winner: Joondalup Community Art Prize | People's Choice Award
Fear stands at the intersection of what we define as possible and impossible.
For 20 years I watched on as Simon charged down sheets of ice at speeds more than 100km/h. The life of a professional skier is one of focus, drive, commitment, and talent. They have a near-insane desire to push through the accepted limits of endurance, strength and wage war against physics and her laws.
Simon represented New Zealand at 4 Olympic Games.
“I was a go-getter and a do-er, I knew what I wanted to do, as far as an athlete. An Olympian when I just turned 17. I had a mindset to compete at the highest level and do my personal best.”
In a 2017 interview, Simon recalls how his presence as a proud Maori athlete competing at the highest level made him an icon for Maori social change in New Zealand:
Wi Rutene became a high-profile Kiwi sportsperson – often equally praised and lambasted in the media as he tried to make his mark on the world of skiing against the traditional European superpowers of alpine sport.
“I think they were fascinated on the fact I was a Maori athlete at a young age representing New Zealand on the world stage against countries who had made skiing their own.
“It was rare to see the Maori in that sport – so there was a novelty factor, and you’ve either got to embrace that or you can react to it. I couldn’t control the headlines but when I look at them, I was happy. It was a privilege to represent New Zealand and the Maori people.
“I still go out around our country and for that generation it was almost like I was a freedom fighter figure. I did excite the imagination and we are talking about a period in New Zealand of immense social change. I managed to navigate that quite well – maybe it was because I was in an individual sport.
“I came up against the knocking machine more often than not. But I was a positive person who would see the best.
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I was taught to ski by my nephew Simon.
He took me to the top of Mt. Ruapehu and said “meet you at the bottom” and disappeared over what looked to me like a cliff.
It took almost seven hours before I finally saw him again at the carpark at the bottom of the mountain.
Bruised, exhausted and cold, Simon looked and me, smiled and said:
Don’t you feel better for being fearless?
