Super Rugby Aupiki well and truly kicked off this weekend.
The first match of the third season started with a haka, as many games do here in Aotearoa. The Hurricanes Poua laid down a challenge to the agenda set by the new coalition Government, a challenge which has made boardrooms this week distinctly uncomfortable. It was only a matter of time before we would see cultural and commercial sensitivities clash. So you have to wonder how administrators could be so ill-prepared for this reality.
Not all of us have had the privilege of performing a haka. For those that haven’t, there is a fairly standard process that you go through. First, you learn the words. Not just the words but the meaning of those words. You have to understand this in order for your actions to make sense. They bring the words to life, underlining for emphasis. Then you practise, practise and practise again, to the point where you are fully embodying this message. So the idea that anyone stepped on to the field last Saturday without having a full understanding of what they were about to perform is an insult to both the players and the practice.
Still the question asked is whether all players were in alignment on this choice of message. The sentiment of such a query being that surely a whole team cannot be left wing. To that I say, you clearly don’t understand the demographics of those who play in the women’s game. How much overlap there is between this group and those that bear the brunt of the legislative changes brought in by this Government. Never mind the fact that attempted rewrites of the foundational document of our country, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, go well beyond the left/right divide.
There are those too that say this wasn’t the platform for the players to make this statement. That this place isn’t theirs to express themselves. If that’s not telling of the game’s attitude towards Māori, I don’t know what is. They are happy to commercialise the cultural practice of the haka, making it the centrepiece of promotions and the display at the All Blacks Experience. But only if it is the sanitised version, stripped of all cultural context. “You want my haka but you don’t want me” was a sign held by a child at a recent protest. A message reiterated in the Hurricanes’ response.
