Hurricanes move to clarify meaning of second controversial Poua haka

Sunday, 10 March 2024

The Hurricanes Poua have again called out the Government with their haka.

The Hurricanes have aimed to clarify the meaning of a second controversial haka from their women’s team.
The Poua performed a modified version of their haka, which again included some contentious wording, prior to their Super Rugby Aupiki win against Matatū in Wellington on Saturday.
The haka again irked Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, and also saw the leader of it − Leilani Perese − direct an Instagram post towards him and David Seymour.

The Hurricanes have moved to clarify the intended meaning of the latest haka performed by the Poua in Super Rugby Aupiki.

The team had been in the spotlight this week after referring to “puppets of this redneck government” in their haka before their season-opening defeat to the Chiefs Manawa in Hamilton last weekend.

On Saturday, before playing and beating Matatū in Wellington, they produced a further modified version of their Poua Ki Runga haka, again led by tighthead prop Leilani Perese, this time using a phrase that was translated to English by TVNZ as: “New Zealand rise up! Here is Hurutearangi (female god of the wind)… governments are temporary, the Treaty will endure. Poua will endure”.

Leilani Perese again led a controversial Hurricanes Poua haka on Saturday.

It again raised the ire of Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, who quickly weighed in with his opinion on the matter, with a message on X (formerly Twitter).

“The Hurricanes may well lose support and viewers because the CEO has a bunch of naive players damaging the brand by attempting to wade into partisan political activism without any concept of reality,” Peters posted.

“They are trying to insult the government but are instead now just slapping the Hurricane brand and CEO in the face. Go woke go broke.”

Perese later tagged Peters and Act leader David Seymour in a story posted on her Instagram acccount, featuring a screenshot of the 36-29 scoreline to her side and a shush emoji.

A day prior to the game, and then also several hours before kickoff, Stuff had sought information from the Hurricanes as to what the Poua would be doing in regards their haka before Saturday’s match, then also sought comment following fulltime.

Then, in a statement issued just after 10.30pm on Saturday, they aimed to clear up the confusion.

They noted that Hurricanes management, with support from New Zealand Rugby Kaihautu (Chief Advisor Māori) Luke Crawford, and the New Zealand Rugby Players Association, met with the Poua leadership group on Thursday to discuss the haka performed in round one and to ensure that, in future, any words were respectful, authentic and appropriate.

Hurricanes chief executive Avan Lee said he knew of the amended haka for Saturday’s match.

“It’s been a challenging week,” Hurricanes chief executive Avan Lee said. “We did not approve of some of the words used in the Poua haka last week and made that clear.

“Players and management worked hard to understand different perspectives and acknowledge various views and opinions.

“With the assistance of cultural advisors, the players amended their haka in a way the club was satisfied that it was respectful and true to the team.”

New Zealand Rugby Kaihautu (Chief Advisor Māori) Luke Crawford said the haka reference to the government was about “refocusing away from politics”.

To that end, Poua coach Ngatai Walker said: “We understand there may be misinterpretation of individual words of this haka, but the intent of the meaning is, ‘Aotearoa unite, Hurutearangi (female god of the wind) has arrived; challenges may come and go, but we will endure’.

Poua captain Jackie Patea-Fereti said the team had “stayed true to our beliefs as individuals and a team” and “were proud to perform a revised haka against Matatū”.

Crawford said it was important to correctly interpret haka.

“The team have chosen to take a very Māori approach to the rewrite of the haka and therefore individual words inside the haka are merely representative of a far deeper body of Māori knowledge, language and thinking which are not easily deciphered without the assistance of Pukenga Māori (experts).

“The Poua haka seeks to urge the nation in behind the team, refocus themselves back to their game and to acknowledge the key things that motivate and turn on their super powers.

“The haka reference to the government is in fact part of refocusing away from politics and turning to those things that power, connect, unify, and motivate the team.

“Other than the first line which speaks to Aotearoa, the rest of the haka is an inward facing conversation for the team.

“Translating a single line of the haka in the way that weaponises it against the team, is frankly irresponsible, especially when there are a number of other ways to translate that same line.

“The Hurricanes have come a long way and we have a long way to go, but we have just seen the result of what can happen when we allow a team to be their authentic selves and work well with everyone in the waka.”