TJ Perenara shows the haka isn’t owned by NZ Rugby – Editorial

TJ Perenara leads the haka before the All Blacks test against Italy last year. Photo / Getty Images

Editorial

EDITORIAL

The rights and wrongs of TJ Perenara’s comments about the Treaty of Waitangi while leading his final haka last year have been discussed widely since it was revealed during the week that some teammates felt blindsided by his mihi.

Should he have said anything at all? Should he have worked harder to bring his fellow senior All Blacks along with him? What if someone else wants to make a more problematic political statement in a future haka?

All these questions are shaded by an inalienable truth about the All Blacks haka: NZ Rugby does not own the haka. It’s bigger than the team, it’s bigger than the head office at NZ Rugby, it’s bigger than the supporters and sponsors. When engaging with te ao Māori, you don’t get to pick and choose which bits you take in and which bits you discard.

Perenara was being true to himself and his beliefs – and true to the haka. He should be applauded.

Before the match, he told his teammates he wanted to deliver a message of “unity”. The Treaty unites us – anyone who doesn’t think the words “Forever the Treaty of Waitangi” are a call for unity is straining themselves with a preference for seeing New Zealand as a fractured society.

Ka pai te mahi, TJ!

Online abuse of athletes is unforgivable

Revelations this week from New Zealand tennis players about anonymous online abuse they receive have shed light on one of the darker aspects of a professional sporting career.

Monique Barry and James Watt told the Herald they believed abusive messages were coming from online gamblers who had lost money when the Kiwis were defeated.

The messages include threats to find and hurt the players and taunts about suicide.

Barry is ranked 480 in the world and Watt is at 373 – so there are plenty of players above them who would have stories of their own to tell of horrific online abuse.

For as long as there has been a ball to kick or hit and someone standing on the sidelines, spectators have been sharing their thoughts with players. Some of those thoughts will be positive, some negative.

As sport has become a bigger deal in our society – with big commercial players involved – the thoughts of those spectators (who ultimately are the ones paying for the show) have become more visceral.

Sir Richard Hadlee remains perhaps the most potent fast bowler to ever visit Australian shores. The raucous crowd in Bay 13 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground was relentless in its abuse of him. Perhaps it spurred him on – he took more wickets against Australia than he did against any other nation.

The Bay 13 hordes felt safe in shouting the worst abuse: They were anonymous in a crowd.

Today, the same characters find anonymity online – and this has spurred the nature of their comments to go deeper and be more hurtful. Heckling is gone, and hate is in.

No one should have to put up with threats to their safety – and awful taunts about suicide – just because they play a game.

As is so often the case with anonymous online bullies, women seem to be a particular focus for acrimony. In the United States, the National Collegiate Athletic Association last year released a study showing female basketball players received three times more threats than their male counterparts.

Sporting bodies are doing what they can to address online abuse – the International Tennis Federation identified 12,000 abusive posts and comments to players between January and October last year. But it’s the social media platforms, where the abuse runs rampant, which should be made fully accountable for what is said by those their businesses are empowering.

The rise of online gambling has brought another troubling aspect to the way sport is accessed on the internet.