The New Zealand Hurricanes Super Rugby women’s team, the Poua, have used a pre-game haka to again challenge the conservative government, despite a warning from the franchise’s CEO over an earlier incident.
Last week the team altered the words of their ceremonial dance before their Super Rugby Aupiki season opener against the Chiefs Manawa to include the phrase, “Karetao o te Kāwana kakiwhero,” which translates to “puppets of this redneck government.”
“The Hurricanes shouldn’t be making any political statement,” he said.
The players were not employees but their collective agreement said there would be “no political statements ... not bringing the game into disrepute,” he said.
The ongoing incident comes amid moves by the ACT Party, one of three parties in the current New Zealand government, pushing for a change to how the Treaty of Waitaingi is interpreted.
The libertarian party has said the 1844 agreement has, in recent years, been interpreted as a “co-governance” framework between Maori and other races, meaning Indigenous people get their own laws and official positions separate from everyone else.
Leader Defended Earlier Haka
The rugby organisation has said the Poua would be apologising to the government, but that was immediately contradicted by the team’s haka leader Leilani Perese.“I believe in what we’re saying, I stand by it,” she said. “I believe that in rugby, we have a platform where people watch and listen. And why not use our platform to show our people we will never fold? To tell the government that we are stronger than ever, and we will never go down without a war.”
Before their game against Matatū on March 9, the team again performed a haka which contained a phrase in the Māori language targeting the government.
“New Zealand rise up! Here is Hurutearangi,” the haka said, translated to English. “Governments are temporary, the Treaty will endure. Poua will endure.”
That time, Mr. Lee defended the team and revised the wording.
“We did not approve of some of the words used in the Poua haka last week and made that clear,” he said. “Players and management worked hard to understand different perspectives and acknowledge various views and opinions.
“With the assistance of cultural advisors, the players amended their haka in a way the club was satisfied that it was respectful and true to the team.”
They also have the support of Head Coach Ngatai Walker, who said: “We understand there may be misinterpretation of individual words of this haka, but the intent of the meaning is, ‘Aotearoa unite, Hurutearangi (female god of the wind) has arrived; challenges may come and go, but we will endure.’”
Needs Interpretation, Māori Adviser Says
NZ Rugby Māori Chief Advisor Luke Crawford said it was important to correctly interpret the performance.“The team have chosen to take a very Māori approach to the rewrite of the haka and therefore individual words inside the haka are merely representative of a far deeper body of Māori knowledge, language, and thinking which are not easily deciphered without the assistance of Pukenga Māori [experts].
“The haka reference to the government is in fact part of refocusing away from politics and turning to those things that power, connect, unify, and motivate the team. Translating a single line of the haka in the way that weaponises it against the team, is frankly irresponsible.”
Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters, who sharply criticised the team after the first incident, again took to social media to respond, saying the Hurricanes franchise was “trying to insult the government.”
“The Hurricanes may well lose support and viewers because the CEO has a bunch of naive players damaging the brand by attempting to wade into partisan political activism without any concept of reality,” Mr. Peters said.
“They are trying to insult the government but are instead now just slapping the Hurricane brand and CEO in the face. Go woke go broke.”
