Hurricanes Poua again use haka to call out Govt despite warning. Extract from RNZ: “Late Saturday night, the Wellington-based franchise issued a statement explaining while the words of the haka were open to interpretation, the latest haka was not meant to be critical of the Government and people should not
focus on one or two lines . . . .
“In the statement, New Zealand Rugby kaihautu (chief adviser Māori) Luke Crawford said the reference to the Government was, in fact, ‘refocusing away from politics’. ‘Translating a single line of the haka in the way that weaponises it against the team, is frankly irresponsible especially when there are a number of other ways to translate that same line. The Hurricanes have come a long way and we have a long way to go, but we have just seen the result of what can happen when we allow a team to be their authentic selves and work well with everyone in the waka.’ He went on to say ‘individual words inside the haka are merely representative of a far deeper body of Māori knowledge, language and thinking which are not easily deciphered without the assistance of Pukenga Māori (experts)’.”
It would appear that nothing is as simple as it seems . . . one would imagine the last point applies to the Treaty too.
Ron Taylor
