Meet 'Kiwi' Blake the Afro-American Maori All Black

By JAMES GARDINER

Alan "Kiwi" Blake captained the New Zealand Maori rugby team - but he was African American.

Now as the spotlight goes on the whakapapa of players such as Christian Cullen who have been selected for the New Zealand Maori side to play Tonga on Monday, Blake can be forgiven a laugh.

Ironically, it was racism that saw the Wairarapa flanker become a "Maori" despite having no Maori blood.

An outstanding forward in the New Zealanders' World War II Army team, Blake said he was told by rugby bosses after the trials in 1948 that he, with Johnny Smith and Vince Bevan, would have made the following year's All Black tour of South Africa had it not been for the colour of their skin.

"When they told me that I said all right, I'll take a nomination for the Maori team," Blake, 80, said yesterday.

"I didn't care who I played for."

Blake said his dark skin came from his grandfather, a Canadian who was "a quarter Negro".

But he was never challenged as not being a Maori, nor even asked to play in a trial.

He played for the Maori side until 1952, captaining them against the 1950 Lions. He also played one test for the All Blacks against Australia in 1949 and represented Wairarapa from 1941 until 1960.

Former All Black captain Fred Allen said Blake was an excellent player who should have made the tour had New Zealand not acquiesced to South Africa's demands for whites only. Allen said it was only later people learned Blake was not Maori.

Blake said Wairarapa locals knew he was not Maori but no one in the Maori team seemed to mind.

"We were all good mates."

He did not have to worry about making aftermatch speeches in Maori because "there was no Maori spoken in those days".

Later they tightened up eligibility criteria, although Blake said he was surprised at some recent selections.

"They got strict but it doesn't look as though they're that strict now, does it?"

Rugby bosses beg to differ. The NZRFU and management and selectors of the Maori team have checks to ensure only players with Maori whakapapa (genealogy) are selected and say informal checks are made by a kaumatua.