Haka, sport and politics

The Hurricanes Poua's season started with a controversial haka criticising the Government, with critics asking if politics belong in sport.

In the first haka of their season, the Hurricanes Poua used the words "karetao o te Kāwana kakī whero" -- "puppets of this redneck government". 

It was a political statement that got the attention of the government, the media; and the Hurricanes Poua management, who said they were blindsided. 

And a bit of pushback - Act's David Seymour said the Poua "know nothing about the colour of my neck", NZ First's Winston Peters said they shouldn't be "out there to speak, you're out there to play", and Newstalk ZB breakfast host Mike Hosking called women's rugby a "tenuous proposition at the best of times".

This weekend, the team revised their haka, using a line that's been translated by 1News as: "Governments are temporary, the Treaty will endure. Poua will endure." 

But the team's management has denied this is the translation, saying it meant "challenges may come and go, but we will endure". 

RNZ Māori news journalist Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira (Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Hine) was the first to report on the story. The Detail sat down with him to discuss whether haka is inherently political, and whether such messages belong in sport.

"It's a question I've been trying to follow up with some 'haka experts,' for lack of a better term, to get a sense of what actually the role of haka is within rugby," he says.

"One of the key responses I've got, and I think that Māori people know this, [is that] haka is not just a political art form. It is often used as a political art form," he says, "but it is also an expression of love, of commemoration.

"When you think about that concept - that haka is an art form, it's a form of expression - what role do New Zealand rugby clubs have in implementing or integrating what is essentially a show as part of their game?

"Is it just a little set piece that you have before the game to get everybody hyped up, is it a tool for marketing that you use to bring in foreign interest into the game...and if you're going to do that, is that the right thing to do, if it's a form of expression?

"Should rugby clubs dictate to teams or composers what can be said? I think it's fair to say that the reaction from Māori is 'no it's not'. So the question now is should haka be part of the game if it's going to have these limitations?" he says. 

Sir Wayne "Buck" Shelford was captain of the All Blacks from 1987 to 1990, and was largely responsible for bringing a meaningful haka back into the All Blacks tradition. He says that issuing a challenge is part of haka, and sees nothing wrong with the Poua's haka. 

"It's just a challenge," he says. "Sometimes you can voice your opinion through haka."

When asked if he thinks politics and sport should mix, Shelford says he thought they shouldn't - "until I couldn't go to South Africa in 1985".

"The government stopped us from going ... it does get political," he says. "During those days it was apartheid but we see apartheid in New Zealand - not as a legal thing but we see racism all the time in New Zealand."

Louisa Wall (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Hineuru, Waikato) was a Black Fern and Silver Fern, representing our national sides in rugby and netball, and was also a Labour MP. She also believes that sport and politics are inherently linked. 

"As a five-year-old I played [rugby] for College Old Boys in Taupō and that was probably my first experience of politics," she says.

"At the end of that season, I was banned from playing rugby because rugby wasn't a game for girls. I would've thought that was a political statement.

"The haka's a political statement because it whakamanas, or uplifts, the indigenous voice here in Aotearoa New Zealand. Haka evolve and change to express our sentiments, our feelings about what's happening about a certain point in time. We do use haka to wero, to challenge, because that's what the nature of a haka is." 

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