Speaking the Unspoken: Racism, Sport and Maori

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the silence that surrounds issues of racism in New Zealand sport. We argue that the intersection of two key ideologies -New Zealand's purported history of good race relations, and the positive contribution that sport is believed to make to racial equality -contribute to a culture of silence in which it is difficult to talk about, let alone discuss constructively, Māori experiences of racism. Our aim is to put the issue on the agenda through engagement with ten experienced Māori sport participants, coaches and administrators whose experiences demonstrate the existence of, and pain caused by, cultural and institutional racism in New Zealand sport. In this aim, we do not seek to hide behind a veil of neutrality or objectivity. Rather, following a kaupapa Māori research approach, our interest is in bringing to light the voices, frustrations and concerns of Māori sportspeople in order to contribute to a much-needed conversation.

Extending understandings of risk in organised sport

“…Thus, kaupapa Māori, which can simultaneously mean a Māori approach, topic, customary practice, principle, Māori theoretical framework or set of methodological guidelines (Hoskins and Jones, 2017a; Moorfield, 2011), can be understood as discursive fields and practices created by Māori that did not exist previously (Hoskins, 2017). In some New Zealand sporting contexts, kaupapa Māori concepts such as mauri (vital essence of life), whenua (land) and whānau (extended family), and practices such as karakia (prayers or ritual chant) and haka (vigorous dance with actions and rhythmically-shouted words), have been adopted by Māori and non-Māori participants, coaches and teams, including at elite levels (Erueti and Palmer, 2014; Hippolite and Bruce, 2010, 2013; Palmer, 2016). However, it is important to understand that Māori are not a homogenous group, and that different Māori iwi (tribes) and hapū (sub-tribes) have different beliefs and practices.…”

‘Representing’ the voices of Fijian women rugby players: Working with power differentials in transformative research

“…Fijian sociologist Simione Durutalo (1992: 208) similarly called on Pacific islanders ‘to put a stop to the use of these islands as an ethnographic zoo, an anthropological laboratory where trainee Western anthropologists go to “win their academic spurs” while Pacific Islanders are reduced to the role of ethnographic commodities to be studied and written about without their making any input into the exercise.’ More recently, David Gegeo (2001: 182), a Solomon Islands scholar, has consistently challenged the violence of Western hegemonic knowledge systems: ‘What good is political independence if we remain colonised epistemologically? If we remain unable to think outside Anglo-European frameworks?’ In the broader Oceanic region, Māori researchers (Bishop, 1996; Hippolite and Bruce, 2010; Smith, 1999; Walker, 1985) have made key contributions to interrogating the initiation, benefits, representation, legitimation and accountability of Western research on their communities.…”

Beyond the All Blacks Representations: The Dialectic between the Indigenization of Rugby and Postcolonial Strategies to Control Māori

“…17 Generally speaking, racism toward Māori in sport seems to be a taboo subject in New Zealand society (see Hippolite and Bruce 2010).…”