Attention rugby: Do you want Māori or just their haka? - Alice Soper

Leilani Perese of the Hurricanes Poua leads her team's haka. Photo / Getty Images

Super Rugby Aupiki well and truly kicked off this weekend.

The first match of the third season started with a haka, as many games do here in Aotearoa. The Hurricanes Poua laid down a challenge to the agenda set by the new coalition Government, a challenge which has made boardrooms this week distinctly uncomfortable. It was only a matter of time before we would see cultural and commercial sensitivities clash. So you have to wonder how administrators could be so ill-prepared for this reality.

Not all of us have had the privilege of performing a haka. For those that haven’t, there is a fairly standard process that you go through. First, you learn the words. Not just the words but the meaning of those words. You have to understand this in order for your actions to make sense. They bring the words to life, underlining for emphasis. Then you practise, practise and practise again, to the point where you are fully embodying this message. So the idea that anyone stepped on to the field last Saturday without having a full understanding of what they were about to perform is an insult to both the players and the practice.

Still the question asked is whether all players were in alignment on this choice of message. The sentiment of such a query being that surely a whole team cannot be left wing. To that I say, you clearly don’t understand the demographics of those who play in the women’s game. How much overlap there is between this group and those that bear the brunt of the legislative changes brought in by this Government. Never mind the fact that attempted rewrites of the foundational document of our country, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, go well beyond the left/right divide.

There are those too that say this wasn’t the platform for the players to make this statement. That this place isn’t theirs to express themselves. If that’s not telling of the game’s attitude towards Māori, I don’t know what is. They are happy to commercialise the cultural practice of the haka, making it the centrepiece of promotions and the display at the All Blacks Experience. But only if it is the sanitised version, stripped of all cultural context. “You want my haka but you don’t want me” was a sign held by a child at a recent protest. A message reiterated in the Hurricanes’ response.

Three years ago, then Hurricanes board member Troy Bowker made a publicly racist statement towards Māori. At that time, the chair of the board said: “The Hurricanes did not support his remarks but the organisation was not in a position to control his opinions.”

No apology for this representative of the franchise but a swift one for the Poua’s haka. Further laying out a lack of coherent internal policy.

As much as rugby has profited from haka, they do not own it. It is a taonga, a gift, that Māori have shared with rugby. It is an expression of their culture. So of course they would use this performance as a place to express their discomfort at the way their culture is currently being devalued. If such expression of self is not welcomed by the commercial game, you have to ask why we are performing haka at all. If you can’t respect the tikanga then you can’t have this taonga.

Rugby does not exist in a vacuum. Our national game is always going to be a part of our national conversation. The Government started this one, asking what place Māori are to occupy in our society. The Poua answered on behalf of their team.

Their message was heard by those who needed it before the translated outrage hit. The larger question is still for rugby to answer, do you want Māori or just their haka?