Hurricanes Poua Embrace the Political Pulse of Being Māori

Hurricanes Poua are ditching orders and taking their Māoritanga off the sideline and onto the grass, protesting the Government’s Te Tiriti changes.  

The rugby players altered their pregame haka two weeks ago to include the words “puppets of this redneck Government”.  

After their big boss said the team would stop – the players came in harder a few days later with another haka. 

“Governments are temporary, the Treaty will endure. Poua will endure,” the players shouted out in Te Reo.  

Late last year, the government proposed defining Aotearoa’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi. The proposal claimed the bill would ensure “the same rights and duties for all New Zealanders”. However, by making us all one and the same, it threatens the tino rangatiratanga and mana motuhake of Māori that Te Tiriti intended to establish, as well as ignoring the unique rights and responsibilities of us as tangata whenua. 

Winston Peters, our Māori deputy prime minister Winnie, is throwing a hissy fit about the Hurricanes Poua protest. He took his moaning about the Hurricanes brand insulting the Government to X (Twitter).  

 “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”. 

Here’s the gag that Winnie, who is Māori himself, is failing to remember – being Māori is ALWAYS political. 

Whilst this haka was a deliberate decision, being Māori is ingrained into almost everything we do, influencing our decisions whether we see it or not. Whether you’re in politics, on the rugby field, or simply walking on the street – existence as a Māori is inherently political 24/7.  

The Poua team, with many of the players Māori, don’t just leave their cultural identity on the sideline. Their place on that field is the result of mokopuna-focused decisions that our tīpuna fought for. 

Take the year 1960. The All Blacks selected no Māori players to tour South Africa due to their apartheid laws. Fast forward to the 70s, Māori players were allowed to travel with the team as “honorary whites”.  

My Koro, as a teenager in the 1950s, also wasn’t selected for sports teams simply based on the fact that he IS Māori.  

Rugby players of Māori descent always carry their culture with them as they play. They are always part of the bigger picture that factors in their whānau, hāpu, and iwi. 

David Seymour, Winston Peters, and the others in Parliament are disgustingly spreading this “we’re all Kiwi” bullshit narrative, a dangerous attempt to downplay and erase Māori culture.  

In the same breath, New Zealand still wants us to use haka during rugby games as ‘Kiwis’, but to only use haka in a way that is politically easy to swallow.  

Don’t take some of our culture whilst simultaneously trying to squeeze the rest of it out of us.