Arizona to 'discontinue' pregame haka dance after petition, criticism
Arizona performed a traditional Maori pregame haka before playing UCLA, but New Zealanders weren't pleased.
By
Jerry Hinnen
•
2 min read
The practice of American college football teams performing a pregame haka -- the traditional dance of New Zealand's Maori people, made famous as a pregame ritual by the Kiwis' "All-Blacks" rugby team -- isn't new. BYU's done it; Hawaii's done it; Arizona's even produced a "how to" video on it.
But perhaps news of this practice hadn't actually reached New Zealand until ABC broadcast Arizona performing the haka before its loss to UCLA last Saturday:
Via Kiwi media conglomerate stuff.co.nz*, let's find out how that was received across the Pacific:
Ngati Toa runanga chair Taku Parai described the performance as "pathetic" and thought they should stop until they could do the haka justice.
"They certainly don't do it properly," he said. "Just out of courtesy, you would expect them to do it at least 98 per cent properly, if not a hundred per cent."
He said the iwi probably would consider sending someone over if they were invited, providing some of the costs would be met.
"It's best to give them some sort of tutelage than let them carry on like that."
Ouch. But at least Parai seems more bemused than offended; some Kiwis and Kiwi ex-pats in the U.S. were even less pleased, with one New Zealand-born Cal State professor starting a change.org petition asking Arizona to stop performing the haka and comparing it to a failed attempt to perform a Native American dance.
Result: an Arizona spokesperson told the New Zealand Herald the haka would be 'discontinued':
"The Arizona football program has a strong lineage of Polynesian student-athletes, and in 2009, a group of players wished to share this aspect of their culture with their teammates and community.
"As a result, the Ka Mate haka, which had been popularized throughout the world by the All Blacks and recognized by other members of the team, became part of the program's on-field pregame preparation starting that year."
He said in sharing the haka with the members of the football program, the players' intent was to show the pride they have in their Polynesian heritage.
"Even though that intent remains the same today, we've been made aware that a segment of the population is unhappy that the haka is being performed. As a result, we have decided to discontinue the activity."
The spokesman said moving forward the university were now planning to identify other alternatives that would provide an outlet for their Polynesian student athletes to showcase the heritage they are so proud of.
Let's hope Arizona makes good on their word on that count -- the presence of Polynesian players and culture across West Coast and Rocky Mountain football adds a much-needed dose of diversity to college football, and those players' culture should be visibly embraced. But if what the Wildcats are currently performing is a "pathetic" faux haka rather than the real thing, perhaps it's best to embrace it in some other fashion. Assuming Arizona does, this seems to be a case of all's well that ends Well ...
... ington.
HT: DocSat
*A link from the current stuff.co.nz home page: "Show off your rugby man cave." It's a small world after all, y'all.
