There should be little surprise at sportspeople speaking out on Māori issues: Alice Soper

Penina Davidson: "I don’t want to be just known as someone who plays basketball." Photo / Photosport

Opinion

The week of their semifinal, an interview dropped with the Northern Kāhu captain, Penina Davidson. Rather than the usual fluff of growing up, discovering oneself through your chosen sport and lyricism about what it means to wear the crest, this was something different. This was a sport fully embracing its place in politics. An athlete choosing to take a stand and a franchise taking its place right behind her.

For Davidson, wearing Māori designs on her uniform, playing in both a team and a league with a Māori name, she feels it’s her responsibility to “show up for Māori”. She used her interview to urge those who “feel as passionate” as she does to make a submission in opposition to Act’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill.

Anticipating all the usual talking points, Davidson planted her feet ready to receive the charge. “Sport and politics not mixing is really funny to say to a woman, a Pacific woman, who is playing basketball on these lands,” starts Davidson in the Kāhu social media clip, “Personally, I don’t want to be just known as someone who plays basketball, as someone who shoots lay-ups, when something like this is happening in the background”.

This is a sentiment no doubt shared by many athletes at this point in time. It’s why we have seen challenges to the Government’s agenda, laid down in haka in both the Super Rugby Aupiki and the final All Blacks test this year. It’s why several current athletes were there, amongst the tens of thousands of marchers, as the hīkoi wound its way to Parliament.

One netballer among them carried a sign that read “Sport is teetz without us”, but for a long time, athlete’s voices have been mostly absent in such political conversation. It’s not that they haven’t raised them, it’s because there is vested corporate interest in what narratives we amplify. Sports therefore have favoured conservatism or engagement only in a pre-approved list of issues. You can talk about mental health as an athlete, but not about the difficulty in accessing support services.

Effect and not cause, that would be too political.

There will always be moments, however, where saying nothing suddenly becomes louder than saying something. Davidson’s message about the Māori-washing we have seen across codes in this country meant the timer had been set. The Treaty Principles Bill is now ringing in the ears of sports administrators up and down the country. Those who wrote their commitment to honour the Treaty of Waitangi into their constitution.

It’s been heard by the New Zealand Rugby League, which has now chimed in. Making a submission on behalf of its sport stating that its “constitution means NZRL is obligated to act in accordance with and actively promote the principles and values of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in relation to the game of rugby league and the advancement of the league’s other objects. Consequently, NZRL believes the Treaty Principles Bill is at odds with and in conflict with our own constitution and against the interests of our members”.

That it is Māori athletes, wāhine athletes and the game of rugby league that have all been so outspoken on this issue is not a coincidence. It is a reflection of their history of politicisation in sport. They haven’t had the luxury to opt out of politics, their mere existence in our sporting landscape has forced them into hard conversations.

Knowing this, a growing number of our athletes and their organisations have said boldly that sports and politics do mix, here are ours. Support us or don’t, but you now know exactly where we all stand.

They have spoken so loudly, the silence of others will soon become deafening.