[Note: this post is so long that I’ve broken it in 2. Here is the English version. French version below.]
The countdown to the Rugby World Cup (RWC) started on June 1st, with one hundred days to go. I suppose rugby fans are genuinely excited about the sport’s side of things, but all you can hear or read in the media revolves around business opportunities. Will those tickets finally sell? How to cash in on the World Cup? Will benefits outweigh costs? So this is what it’s really about…
In a nutshell: the RWC will run for 45 days (six weeks!) from September 9 until October 23. 19 teams will be competing in 48 games. NZ is expecting 85,000 visitors (2,000 journalists), and 5,000 volunteers are involved. All in all, it is branded as THE LARGEST EVENT EVER HOSTED in the country.
The overarching marketing scheme is to raise New Zealand’s profile on the world scene. What this means I’m not quite sure (can the parks sustain more tourists?). And I find it unfortunate that in all those discussions, there’s an undertone of insecurity. It is constantly implied that the country needs to prove or achieve a world-class status, a rather disputable goal. But more on that later…
The hundred in the title actually does not only refer to the RWC. I’m seizing this opportunity to touch upon an old news item—2010’s celebration of the New Zealand Māori team centenary. I suspect few people outside New Zealand are aware that, along the All Blacks, coexists a national Māori rugby team (which used to be named the Māori All Blacks). I was intrigued enough to seek more information on this, and spoke to Malcolm Mulholland, a Massey University academic, the author of Beneath the Māori Moon—An Illustrated History of Māori Rugby. Here’s an edited version of our conversation.
Cécile Lepage: What was the genesis of this book?
Malcolm Mulholland: In 2001, I had started writing a column on Māori issues in the Hawke’s Bay Today, and it came to the attention of Huia Publishers who asked me if I would like to write the history of Māori rugby. Like most New Zealanders, I grew up in a rugby household. Ever since the age of 7, I’ve played rugby. I was crap, but that’s what every male kid in this country does. It’s part of our make-up. I said “yes, let’s do it”.
CL: Did you have any preconceived idea on the topic before starting this book?
MM: The only preconceived idea I had was how proud our people are of Māori rugby. It came to prominence in the last 15 years, especially under the coaching of Matt Te Pou. The Māori team was dominant during his era. He revitalized the public consciousness of this team. Prior to this, there were only two books written about Māori rugby. One was called Māori Rugby, and it was just a statistical account. So they had every game by year, who played, how many points, and that was it. And following the tour to Wales in 1982, Bob Howitt and Winston McCarthy put out a book called Haka—The Māori Rugby Story. It wasn’t a bad book, but it was very anecdotal, and it was written from a Pakeha perspective. So there were parts that I found, in today’s context, patronizing. They had a thing for example for what they called the “Māori sidestep” which was when you ran straight into a player. There’s a bit of an undertone here, a generalization to say that every Māori player tries to run through a person. So I was just really keen to get a comprehensive history of Māori rugby from a Māori perspective.
CL: Can you talk about what you uncovered?
MM: Probably the one that sticks out is the Apartheid issue. Everyone was aware that it happened, but nobody had actually gone through and chronicled the NZRU’s role, South African government’s and RU’s role and our own government’s role in that chapter. So the first time Apartheid emerges is post World War I. There was an All Black named Rangi Wilson, a West Indian, playing for the New Zealand Forces team. They berthed in Durban, and it was made very clear that he should remain on the boat because of his skin colour. It began there. Then in 1921 the South Africans toured in New Zealand. They played the NZ Māori in Napier. Prior to the game, when the Springboks marched on the field, the Māori team did a haka, and the Springboks players turned their back on them. The Māori team lost, and there was controversy on the field. In a review, a journo said it was disgusting watching a New Zealand public cheering a Māori side. That racist slur set the tone for the next 60 years! In 1928, the All Blacks were to reciprocate that particular tour, and it was made clear that Māori players would not be welcome in South Africa. The trade off was that the Māori team would go to France. It was a way of pacifying Māori protest. It was basically buying them!
CL: So that’s one explanation of the existence of a separate Māori team…
MM: Yes, that was one of the rationales, but the idea was also to have a team the Māori could be proud of, as a pathway of development for Māori players because they were flocking in droves. And the main reason actually was to defeat them from going to League, and changing codes.
CL: So Māori players were banned from touring in South Africa. The NZRU abides by this request. And there were no protest against this decision.
MM: The turning point is 1959. This is when people started marching the streets, really taking a stand. That was led by an Irish Wellington surgeon, Rolland O’Regan, who married a Māori woman. He led a delegation, the Citizens All Black Tour Association, to meet with the Prime Minister and ask him to intervene and stop the Māori discrimination. But those pleas were ignored.
CL: And the tensions escalate until 1981, when the Springboks come to New Zealand. You quote a photographer saying that “it was the closest this country ever came to civil war”.
MM: Yes, 1981 brings everything to a head. There were mass riots. People were lucky not to be killed. The irony of this was that the Minister of Police and Māori Affairs at the time was Ben Couch, who was not allowed to tour in 49 as a player. And here he was upholding the Muldoon line: “Politics shouldn’t’ mix with sport”. The aftermath of the 81 Tour was that it all came at such a cost to the country that we never allowed another Apartheid team to tour our country.
CL: You actually played a role in the resolution of this conflict.
MM: The one comment that stayed with me was from Patricia Mill, the daughter of Jimmy Mill, a player who was denied to go in 28. She said: “To the day my father died, it always used to wrinkle with him the fact that his own country denied his right to be who he was as a person. He blasted the NZRU for being complacent with the discrimination.” I mentioned that to a New Zealand Herald reporter, and I reflected that something needed to happen in order to resolve that sad part of history. I suggested retrospective test caps, recognizing that those guys should have been selected and acknowledging them in that way. That sparked a public debate. The consensus was that an apology should be issued, which the NZRU eventually did do. There’s still a feeling in the Māori community that that apology needs to be issued face to face in a hui [a meeting]. I know that Oregan Hoskins, the South African Rugby boss, is very keen to meet with Māori when he comes over for the World Cup. And also, the survivors of the 81 Springboks team are talking about organizing a tour to come here. So we’ll try to organize something around that. The one major player who hasn’t yet apologized is our government.
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