A Hawke's Bay link to the top tables at NZ Rugby at Waipatu Marae last week, from left board chair David Kirk, welcomed to the marae at the start of a summer holiday in the Bay, board member Caren Rangi, of Napier, and new Maori rugby board member Stewart Whyte, from Waipatu.
Photo / Doug Laing.
A Hawke's Bay link to the top tables at NZ Rugby at Waipatu Marae last week, from left board chair David Kirk, welcomed to the marae at the start of a summer holiday in the Bay, board member Caren Rangi, of Napier, and new Maori rugby board member Stewart Whyte, from Waipatu.
Photo / Doug Laing.
New Zealand Rugby chairman and World Cup-winning All Blacks captain David Kirk has been through a few pōwhiri, but none quite as unique as the one at the start of his family’s summer holiday in Hawke’s Bay.
He and family became manuhiri and mana whenua just minutes apart, crossing thepaepae at the end of one pōwhiri to join a welcome calling on a late-arriving second group at Waipatu Marae, Hastings, a week before Christmas.
It came as part of a never-miss-an-opportunity moment for marae member, sports club chairman and recent NZ Māori Rugby Board member Stewart Whyte, who had invited Kirk to see how a marae-based rugby club operates.
The club, recently renamed Te Whare Tapere o Tamatea, was one of three 2023 national club of the year finalists, based largely on its transformation as a temporary home for whanau displaced by Cyclone Gabrielle.
Kirk took up the opportunity, arriving with wife Bridgit, who is from Hawke’s Bay, along with three of their children and two of their partners, all from overseas.
In the rush of the moment Whyte would tell Kirk “this is how we roll sometimes”, and would later explain the whole process as making the family “one of us”, who would be welcome at any time.
Kirk marvelled at how NZ rugby’s “intellectual property” is “all-around the world, now”, part of making the welcome special.
“But they’re never going to have our essence,” he said.
“While we have that, we’re going to be okay. This is where it all starts.”
He later commented how moving he found the occasion, particularly for the opportunity it gave for the family to “connect back home”.
The family was welcomed by mana whenua Numia Tomoana and Kotuku Tomoana, and brought onto the marae by former Māori All Black and Hawke’s Bay Magpies player Brian Morris.
Morris translated for the family, their korero also included recalling their one match against each other in 1982, when Hawke’s Bay beat Kirk’s Otago 38-3 in an NPC match in Napier.
Former Hawke's Bay Magpies player Brian Morris (left) and New Zealand Rugby board chair David Kirk during the pōwhiri for the Kirk family at Waipatu Marae. The pair played against each other just once, a 38-3 Magpies' win in Napier in 1982. Photo / Doug Laing.
Morris also captained Tamatea to its only Hawke’s Bay premier rugby championship Maddison Trophy win in the same season.
The pōwhiri also firmed three Hawke’s Bay links to the top tables of NZ rugby, with Kirk and Whyte joined by Caren Rangi, a member of Kirk’s board.
With a background in governance, accountancy and public service, including Cook Islands affairs, Rangi entered the top level of NZ’s most powerful sports organisation when a new board was named 12 months ago.
Whyte, who has headed the revival of Te Matau-a-Maui Hawke’s Bay Māori Rugby over the last four years, became a member of the NZ Māori Rugby Board as chair and representative of Te Tini a Maui, the central region, including Wellington.
