A couple of weeks ago Sue gave an interesting lecture around Maori and film, which brought to my attention the notion of appropriation. It got me thinking and I asked myself, has the ruby world cup used cultural appropriation against Maori?
Firstly one needs to identify what exactly appropriation means. According to the Oxford Dictionary online it is; “the act of taking something that belongs to somebody else, especially without permission.” Therefore, cultural appropriation must be the borrowing, or theft of an element of a culture of one group by another.
I would argue that Maori culture to a degree has in fact been used in the current rugby world cup, because there has been a major influence of Maori culture. One of course is the haka, although this is nothing new, it is still Maori culture being used, other examples are the use of art, waka and other various forms. When it comes to the rugby world cup there has been huge influence from Maori culture on display.
I personally think this is wonderful, with the culture being promoted through a well-loved sport. It is very positive in the fact that people from all over the world can be educated and immersed into the culture. Potentially having great opportunities arise, with Maori becoming recognised more and more (is not this what development is all about – to be recognised and heard). It is very clear that the use of Maori culture in the rugby world cup has positives but arguably, there are some negatives to it as well.
It is not the fact that the culture has been used without permission; it is more or less the fact that it takes the whole world to be on New Zealand’s doorstep for Maori culture to be celebrated. Before the rugby world cup, I personally have never seen so much positive Maori culture on the Mainstream media. From having kappa haka groups performing to traditional waka being used, it has been amazing but why now. I can only think the only reason it has been brought to the forefront is that everybody is looking at New Zealand, they want to be wowed and what is more exciting than an indigenous group of people? Something that they may have never seen or heard of before, something that is unique.
One has to realise that culture belongs usually to a group of people, how it is used relies upon context as well as knowledge. This I believe can be classed as intellectual property and in a western world; someone owns this type of property. Maori are trying to achieve this acknowledgement through the WAI262 treaty claim that seeks to find who has a degree of power over Maori intellectual property as well as flora and fauna. So if the haka can be seen as intellectual property who actually owns it? Well according to the messages given by mainstream media New Zealanders do, it is a ‘kiwi’ thing and not much if any acknowledgement is given to Maori. I would not be surprised if less than 40% of New Zealand even knew the real origin of the haka and what it actually means. To me this does not seem right, education is key and everybody I feel needs to learn more about the true meanings.
It does seem that Maori are used when New Zealand wants to stand apart from the rest because otherwise Maori culture will be celebrated every day. According to Barry Barclay’s model, New Zealand is talking out to the whole entire world trying to entice them into coming and exploring the unique wonders that the country has to offer. Tracy Johnson made a statement relating to the film, Whale rider and I think it can be used here. She stated that a negative effect could occur as certain usage can be seen as promoting tourism to New Zealand, resulting in Maori culture becoming a commodity. This is not an ideal result because in the end it degrades Maori culture into becoming a marketing venture.
So yes, there are positives to this occurring but the negatives are huge because the consequences can be very unforgiving, especially if a culture is downgraded to a marketing venture. Although this may not turn out to be true and Maori culture may stay at the forefront even when the world decides to leave. I just hope that New Zealand steps up and does prove me wrong.
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