THE SPRINGBOK TOUR OF 81 Joanna Cobley History

THE SPRINGBOK TOUR OF ’ 81. Joanna Cobley, History Dept, College of Arts, UC

Challenging the dominant – a story about stopping racism, sexism and violence against women. Donna Awatere & Ripeka Evans, Maori Warrior Queens of the Patu Squad.

RUBGY & THE NATION • Rugby: a national legend; masculinities; symbol of the nation’s fitness. First game played in Nelson, 1870. • Trains: mobilised teams • Teams: local pride (1875, 1, 000 people watched Temuka play the visiting Christchurch team) • Equipment: pigs bladder and a (muddy) paddock • Men: played. 1890’s - 50, 000 players & 300 teams • Women: supported (prior to the formation of women’s rugby teams)

A BRIEF HISTORY: 1920 s • 1921, Springbok’s first tour to New Zealand: • Played the ‘New Zealand Natives. ’ • Springboks were disgusted at playing against a band of coloured men. • Series was a draw. • 1928, All Black’s first tour to South Africa: • Agreed to exclude Maori players. • Springboks won.

1930 s • 1937, Springbok tour to New Zealand: • Springboks refuse to play against an all-Maori team; some Maori were in the All Blacks team though. • Springboks won.

1940 s • 1948, a formal system of apartheid established in South Africa. • 1949, All Black tour to South Africa: • This is another all-white team. • Springboks won (again) – “a humiliating affront to national pride” writes historian Jock Phillips, in A Mans’ Country? p 84.

1950 s • 1956, Springbok tour to New Zealand: • Maori Women’s Welfare League officially speak out against their racially selected team. • All Blacks won. • 1960, All Black tour to South Africa: • This is another all-white team. • Citizens’ All Black Tour Association (CABTA) formed; 20 regional branches established; ‘No Maoris No Tour’ slogan; 160, 000 New Zealanders signed an anti-tour petition. • Maori leadership e. g. Rolland O’Regan, Sir Tipene O’Regan’s father. • 4 test matches; draw.

1960 s • 1965, Springbok tour to New Zealand: • Citizen’s Association for Racial Equality (CARE) formed (1964, Auckland). • Attention to racial questions in New Zealand internationally. • Springboks won. • 1967, Proposed All Black tour to South Africa • Cancelled: Following rising public unrest & government pressure, the Rugby Union cancels the 67 tour.

1970 s • A shift in the protest voice… • It gets louder, yet another All Black tour is planned for 1970. • Halt All Racist Tours (HART) (1970, Auckland Uni). • International links • Called on government to make guidelines for sporting contacts with South Africa … without success. Yet, • 1970 & 1976, All Black tour to South Africa: • Maori in the team declared ‘honorary whites. ’

1973 SPRINGBOK TOUR TO NZ CANCELLED • Kirk argued that the country should not be put through the social turmoil that was likely to result if the tour proceeded. • Plus, he didn’t want to risk a boycott the 1974 Commonwealth Games to be hosted at QEII in Christchurch.

PROTEST CONTEXT • Influence of international counter-culture movements: • Environmental activism: Save Lake Manapouri 195972. • Peace politics: stop nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1960 -86. • 2 nd & 3 rd wave feminism: lobbying for pay equity, stopping violence against women, women are not the second sex, 1970 s & 1980 s). • Maori sovereignty: 1975 Land March – brought Maori political issues to national attention; 1977 -8 Bastion Point Occupation. • Dawn Raids: protest against deporting Pacific Island overstayers (1970 s). • Legislation to decriminalise homosexuality (1986).

OTHER FACTORS • 1970 s & early 1980 s marked by: • • Rising unemployment Wage and price freezes Rapidly rising inflation & a general decline in living standards, nationally…. .

TACTICS • Public, Visible, Loud, Forthright. • Mass marches, petitions, sit-ins. • Public education & Consciousness raising (CR). • Public meetings, writing articles, talking in groups. • Protesters were trained in how to resist arrest & protect themselves from police batons and abuse from tour supporters. • Linking arms; wearing motor cycle helmets for protection. • Students were mobilised: • 700 UC students attended meetings and engaged in protest demonstrations.

PROTESTORS & POLICE, AUCKLAND, 1981 Springboks won most of the games, the match between the Springboks and NZ Maori was a draw, the All Blacks won 2 games, 2 matches were cancelled (Hamilton & South Canterbury).

POLICE PELTED WITH EGGS & FLOUR

PUBLIC EDUCATION MESSAGES • “My country was playing in a sport which some people had been excluded because of the colour of their skin. New Zealanders like to consider themselves racially non-prejudiced. Our job was to keep on reminding them in everyway possible of the enormous contradiction. To try to raise the conscious level of New Zealanders above rugby, to humanity. Sport versus morality – where would our country stand? ” • Source: Tim Shadbolt, Bullshit & Jellybeans (1971), p 160.

MULDOON 1976 Black African states boycott the Montreal Olympics BECAUSE of NZ’s continued sporting links with South Africa. New Zealand signed the Gleneagles Agreement, 1977

MAORI WOMEN’S VOICES • “It’s a good thing people are marching about racism in South Africa, because it’s a beginning point for them to look at racism in New Zealand. We have apartheid here too, but without the name. ” • Donna Awatere cited in Sandra Coney, ‘Women Against the Tour, ’ Broadsheet (September, 1981): 11. • VIEWING: start at 5: 16 with Nga Tamatoa stop at 7: 33 http: //www. nzonscreen. com/title/rangatira-in -the-blood-donna-awatere-huata-1998

HAMILTON: GAME CANCELLED

MAORI WOMEN’S VOICES Cont. • “Going out was terrifying … groups of young white males were coming at us … and some were pissed out of their brains. I could smell the whiskey on the guy that hit (and fractured) my arm. Michelle got a broken nose and three broken teeth after being hit by a bottle. ” • “But I say I am fighting for the 20, 000 million blacks who are oppressed, what’s my life beside 20, 000 mission lives? ” • Donna Awatere cited in Sandra Coney, ‘Women Against the Tour, ’ Broadsheet (September, 1981): 11.

HAMILTON, 25 JULY ‘ 81

POST 1981 • CONSEQUENCES: • No racially segregated selected Springbok teams were allowed to tour New Zealand. • KEY QUESTIONS: • What happened to the race debate? • What happened to the culture of rugby?

CONCLUSIONS • Protest: is an expression of National identity. • What sort of nation was New Zealand? • 1981 – some thought the world was a ‘white man’s club. ’ • “Domestic racism is everyday. Everyday on the streets. Everyday in the classroom, the courtroom, the factory, plunket rooms, the welfare home. ” Donna Awatere, 1981. . • Consciousness raising: understanding the system of oppression • Institutional racism and sexism are still evident • The conversation and the protest continues…. • QUESTIONS?