Adam Pompey leads a Māori cultural performance in the build-up to the NRL All Stars rugby league match between the New Zealand Māori and the Indigenous sides at FMG Stadium, Hamilton. Photo / Photosport
By Layla Bailey-McDowell of RNZ
“Culture is the winner at the end of the day.”
That’s how Indigenous Men’s captain Nicho Hynes summed up this year’s NRL All Stars clash – a draw on the scoreboard, but something far bigger off it.
“We all want to win,” he said.
“But when you look back on it, two proud cultures are walking away winners. Culture is the winner at the end of the day. That’s way more important than the end result for me.”
The annual fixture between the Indigenous All Stars and the New Zealand Māori side began in 2010 as a deliberate platform to showcase Indigenous excellence and leadership in rugby league.
More than 15 years on, players say the kaupapa remains important, not just as a game, but as a space to stand in their culture, reconnect with who they are, and inspire the next generation watching on.
Māori Wāhine Toa All Star captain Kennedy Cherrington said the jersey sits above Origins and World Cups.
“I’ve been honoured to play in Origins, World Cups and Grand Finals,” she told RNZ.
“But we’re Māori first. Culture is the number one.”
Cherrington said the message she wanted rangatahi (youth) to take away from kaupapa (programmes) like this is to stand tall in their identity.
“The conversation I really want to get through to our young rangatahi coming through is to be proud to be Māori. No whakamā [shame] around being Māori.
“I want people to have that mana and strength in saying, ‘I’m Māori,’ not that whakamā and going, ‘Oh, I don’t really want to tell anyone’.”
Her own haerenga (journey) of reconnection has been closely tied to the All Stars environment, she said.
“The message I want to get across to our Māori living overseas, or that may be born somewhere else, is to come home, visit home more often and reclaim our language and our culture because home is calling you, our tūpuna [ancestors] are calling you.”
Asked who she was playing for, Cherrington said it went beyond the name on her jersey.
“There’s a lot more than just the last name,” she said.
“It’s the thousands of generations that have come before.”
That same sense of whakapapa (lineage) and responsibility was reiterated across the Māori camp.
Zahara Temara said players were left feeling inspired during the week, after hearing from Te Pāti Māori MP for Hauraki Waikato Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke.
“She said ‘everyone watches sport, you know, not everyone watches politics and your voice does have weight’.
“We do have a platform and we should use it.”
That kōrero (discussion) resonated across the packed out room, she said.
“We were all inspired by it ... we’re inspired to help our indigenous brothers and sisters over across the ditch and, of course, ours back home.”
That cultural pride, Temara said, cannot be confined to a single fixture.
“It needs to be 365 days of the year ... We’re Māori first and we’ve got to represent that.”
Teammate Shanice Parker described the match as part of her own journey home.
She told RNZ she did not connect with her biological father’s whānau until her mid-teens.
“I felt like there was a missing piece of me,” she said.
“And then once I found that, so much made sense.”
Parker said the match offers more than visibility, and was in fact “more than just a game”.
“The social impact initially for both of our people, they are at a social disadvantage in both of our countries,” she said.
“But this showcases that we can be the pinnacle of whatever we want to do. Sport is just the vehicle. Culture underpinning this week feeds our wairua [spirit] and who we are.”
Across the Tasman, Indigenous Men’s co-captain Quincy Dodd said the game itself was only “the little sprinkle on the top”.
“The whole week is what makes it,” she said.
“We create our own little story this week. Everyone starts their own little journeys, but we just keep building each and every year.”
Indigenous coach Jedd Skinner said the visibility of Māori, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in elite spaces was crucial.
“They see it. They can do it,” she said.
“And at the end of the day, if we keep inspiring Māori boys and girls and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander boys and girls at home to play this great game, then we’ve done our job regardless of the score.”
She said the match carries a broader purpose.
“It’s about reconciliation, right? We’re trying to educate the wider society of two strong First Nations cultures. And I think, that is success as well.”
“We hold each other, we walk with each other and we go on this journey and celebrate each other ... This week helps us do that.”
Skinner described the relationship between the two cultures as close and familiar.
“Sport and politics, they don’t usually mould well together, but sport does show what we can do and it does show how strong we are. And I think that when we get it right on and off the field, we only elevate each other.
“Younger sister, older sister, we fight in the same fights,” she said.
Speaking to media post-match, Hynes said criticism that the fixture has “run its time” missed the point.
“If you’re going to talk about this in a negative light, come spend a week in camp,” he said.
“Come to the marae, come to the cultural dinner, come and sit in a session when we talk in a circle about what it means to us.”
He pointed to the packed jersey presentation as evidence of its significance for players and wider whānau.
“That’s because their parents and family come over for this game because that’s how much it means to them,” he said.
Coach Ron Griffiths said the impact stretches beyond the field.
“At this point in time, 44% of out-of-home care children in Australia are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander,” he said.
“For us, it’s about creating generational change by inspiring people or understanding that at that moment in time, whether it’s Nan or Pop or Mum or Grandad who have spent their hard-earned money to come here or pay for Sky TV or whatever that is, for that moment in time, they get to forget about their problems and just watch their stars and get lost in that.
“For 80 minutes, whatever’s going on in their life, they can just shelve that and watch their heroes.”
Hynes agreed and said there would be tamariki (children) in the stands, or watching at home, imagining themselves in the jersey.
“Our young indigenous kids out in rural areas don’t get much. What they do have is dreams.”
“And dreams can turn into reality by seeing these events,” he said.
“There’s probably some Māori kids out there going through some tough times, but they probably rocked up here today seeing their idols do the haka, everyone’s singing and dancing in the grandstands and they want to be a young James Fisher-Harris or a Keanu Kini or Briton Nikora. That’s their hopes and dreams.
“And some people don’t get hopes and dreams and we’re able to provide that.”
He reflected on his own journey, and said while it was a tough road to get where he was today, “it’s so worth it”.
“For people like me, I didn’t grow up in my culture and I’ve always been loud and proud ever since coming into these camps,” he said.
“No one can ever take that away from me and no one can take that away from our people.”
– RNZ