{"id":1003,"date":"2011-10-26T07:38:42","date_gmt":"2011-10-25T21:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/?p=1003"},"modified":"2017-11-05T08:03:45","modified_gmt":"2017-11-05T08:03:45","slug":"cultural-ritual-protocol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/countries\/australasia\/australia\/1003","title":{"rendered":"Cultural Ritual Protocol"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was dismayed to see that the French rugby team<\/a> were fined for their response to the Haka at the World Cup Grand Final. Apparently there is a 10 meter exclusion zone for the ‘cultural ritual.’ This isn’t the first time that a team opposing the Kiwis has been challenged for responding inappropriately. I can understand that the Haka has become a significant identifier for both the All Blacks and Rugby Union as a whole, but it should be seen as it really is.<\/p>\n

The Haka is a war dance<\/a>, performed before a battle to intimidate the enemy. Sport plays a role in replacing war in modern societies by providing an outlet for aggression and national pride. Reenacting the war dance is then appropriate before a major sporting event, but it must give the All Blacks a major psychological advantage. I know I’d be intimidated by a group of large men screaming at me with muscles bulging aggressively.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the All Blacks web site describes the Haka as a dance of welcome<\/a>. If that’s true, the welcome is one given as a warning that the host is not to be trifled with.<\/p>\n

Why must the opposing teams quietly allow themselves to be intimidated? In a real war, the opposition would be performing their own war dance. The French don’t have a war dance so they tried to show that they weren’t intimidated by forming a wall and walking towards the All Blacks. Rather than recognising the response, the International Rugby Board fined the French team.<\/p>\n

In 1996, the Wallabies<\/a> decided to show they were not cowed by turning their backs on the Haka and warming up. The English<\/a> also turned their backs on the Haka in 2008. In both cases, the teams were ridiculed for their lack of respect for a cultural ritual. Greg Growden<\/a>, a rugby journalist wrote, ‘It has been made clear by international rugby’s ruling body that while New Zealand rugby teams lay down the challenge, opposition teams are expected to stand motionless and make no reaction.’<\/p>\n

I feel the need for respecting culture, but it must be taken in context. Were the All Blacks a warring Maori tribe performing the war dance before a battle, they would expect their enemy to respond in kind. Other rugby teams don’t have a ‘cultural ritual’ to call on so they must be allowed to intimidate or indicate their lack of intimidation in some way other than to stand there and take it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was dismayed to see that the French rugby team were fined for their response to the Haka at the World Cup Grand Final. Apparently there is a 10 meter exclusion zone for the ‘cultural ritual.’ This isn’t the first time that a team opposing the Kiwis has been challenged for responding inappropriately. I can… Continue reading Cultural Ritual Protocol<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,23,22,26],"tags":[46,105,93,102,104,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1007,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions\/1007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}