Mr Tamati has been telling his story of becoming violence-free to high school pupils throughout Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes this week as part of the "It's not OK" campaign.
He was the man with "love" tattooed on his fist who appeared in the first "It's not OK" television promotion speaking on the impact of family violence.
He spoke to a packed hall at Wakatipu High School yesterday, saying he wanted to reach out and tell his story to the pupils, especially to the young men.
"It may not be you today, but it may be you tomorrow. I wish family violence education started in schools. It sits in here and plays with your brain and your heart and you don't know when it's going to come out," he said.
He told his story of growing up in a Christian Samoan family in South Auckland and suffering violence at the hands of his father and from figures of authority at Sunday school and Boys Brigade.
"You just got a hiding for everything. When I was at home, my father just punched me and kicked me and knocked me out maybe about five or six times in a hiding. It was because I was the oldest boy. He would say 'It's because I love you'," he said.
After each beating, he would be rewarded with fish and chips.
"When I got older, I got love tattooed on my hand and went around South Auckland and shared that love around as much as I could," he said.
"When I got married this was all I knew - if you love them, you bash them. I ended up bashing my wife and kids," he said.
He told how he beat his daughter with a hose but still refused to see that he was just like his own father.
"I was different because I didn't knock them out five or six times in a hiding. But I was no different," he said.
It ended when he beat his 8-year-old daughter because she refused to go to school.
"I smashed her with a shoe until she gave up," he said.
When teachers sent her home from school because of the bruising, Tamati's wife went "ballistic", he said.
His wife told him she was going to Women's Refuge before he killed one of them.
"She said the kids needed to share with me before they left and my 8-year-old baby was the first one to speak. She said it was all because of her. It was the first time in my life someone stood up for me and that's what broke me. How can an 8-year-old take the blame for me bashing her up," he said.
He sought help from the Stopping Violence programme in 1992 and turned his life around.
He remains married to his wife of 34 years and is in close contact with his six children, one of whom is a top New Zealand female vocalist, MC Ladi6 or Karoline Tamati.
"I have a long history of family violence but now I look after my grandchildren. It took me 10 years of being violence-free, but now I am head babysitter," he said.
Mr Tamati was hosted in Queenstown by the Wakatipu Abuse Prevention Network. He spoke at Mt Aspiring College on Monday, Cromwell College on Tuesday at Dunstan High School on Wednesday.
