THE MAORI PRESENCE AT RWC CELEBRATION OR CO-MODIFICATION

I've watched from the opening ceremony, only missing one or two games until the end of our World Cup and I thought wow, what an amazing opportunity for the World to see Maori in such a positive frame. But, while thinking of my essay topics and reading Walker and Pihama on the 'co-modification of Maori' I started to question if this was the case here...

The opening ceremony was littered with traditional Maori tikanga and imagery, the waka, haka, karanga and amazing light show all the branding including a Maori design. I had originally surmised that this was an amazing display of acceptance of our countries indigenous Maori heritage a coming of age as such, where all the people of Aotearoa could celebrate such an amazing event Maori and non- Maori while celebrating the Maori Culture too.

You quickly realise when talking with overseas guests that our manuhiri are far more interested in Maori culture than many New Zealanders are, I guess this can be a case of semi-familiarity and the euro centric gaze on the 'exotic'. I felt really proud of our Country what we had achieved coping with visitors/manuhiri and hosting/ WINNING a Rugby World Cup. My rugby mad family have embraced all the teams and when an opportunity came to see a game (sadly not the All Blacks) play live and in the fan zones they've been so excited to have the best teams in the world in our country. My youngest son was so excited to see the waka come in, the haka's errupt spontaneously as the parties passed. The amazing koru unfold in the digital light show, it seemed our country had embraced the 'mauri' and it was so fitting that we Maori were represented to the world positively dominantly and in such an awesome format as the Rugby World Cup.

When you analyse whether or not we have 'co-modified' Maori I guess its in the way you look at the regular representation of Maori and the way they appear in this scenario.

When you consider that you were more likely to see Maori tikanga, arts- haka, images on a Sunday morning or afternoon on most of the 'mainstream channels' I think there could be a strong case for 'co-modification' . Kirsten Zemke-White posed a question in her lecture which was 'is this type of entertainment Maori or cheesy?" she was referring to the entertainers like the 'Maori Volcanics etc singing in small part Maori songs in a European style... You could I suppose say the same about the Maori warrior at the opening of each game with the pipe.

But when I consider the Rugby World Cup having no Maori input I can't, nor would I want to.

I think it was right and good that there was so much Maori input. Would I like to see more effort made daily to engage rather than it requiring a special event yes, but I hope that this can become a new trend or a habit of inclusion of things Maori in all areas of everyday life.

Positive portrayals of Maori and tikanga not being referred to as" a waste of tax payers money" or unimportant. It is very important for children (like mine) to see positive Maori image whenever and wherever possible, for us to move forward from Pihamas' rightful claim that re-enforcement of consistent negative stereotypical European constructions of Maori are harmful and 'dangerous' and into a period of Maori presenting Maori positive anti-stereotypical depictions of Maori People as leaders and contributors.