Arizona Football Haka-Gate: New Zealanders and Fans Speak out

ZonaZealots wrote an article on the banning of the Haka for the Arizona football team defending the players and the program. Greg Byrne, New Zealanders and Fans spoke out.

Haka-Gate started last week when a woman in California started a petition to ban Arizona from traditionally performing the pre-game Haka and was successful. Our post in the Arizona Football Chat Group on Facebook received a lot of attention and some great discussion. 

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After posting our first Haka article on social media, most fans told ZZ they were mostly sad and upset that anyone would think the team was performing the Haka out of maliciousness or not out of respect for their culture. After all, a lot of high schools and college teams do the same thing before or after games, but Arizona performed their Haka on national television on ESPN’s GameDay. ABC soaked it up and New Zealand fans were angered.

Upset, Wildcats fans fought back and there is a petition on Change.org to bring back the Haka at Arizona. The petition now has 1,885 supporters.

Arizona Athletic Director Greg Byrne announced shortly after the banning, “We aren’t permanently [banning it]. Going to create our own.” Head Coach Rich Rodriguez also spoke about the Haka tradition in his presser today, look we have to wait until next year.

So it seems the team will be able to perform something in the future. But we still had questions: what happened? Why were they upset? Why were they taking it out on these young men who were paying homage to a wonderful tradition? BYU does it and no one is upset!

As luck would have it, a warm and accepting New Zealander named Rawiri reached out to ZZ and wanted to explain what was going on. We were honored that he chose Fansided to help make peace between the two people’s.

The Interview:

I understand you are from Auckland, New Zealand, do you perform the Haka yourself? 

Arizona Wildcats

My high school has its own Haka which I performed whilst playing on their rugby team, and we would also perform Tika Tonu (which is about looking inside yourself to look for strength and integrity to overcome your problems) on occasion.

What do you think was the major issue New Zealanders had with the Wildcats?

That particular Haka “Ka Mate” belongs to the Ngāti Toa Iwi (tribe) so usually it is done with their permission.

I think overall it’s more of a case of doing it properly and understanding the meaning behind it than the fact that its American kids doing it. I guess the same goes for high schools, although Football really isn’t much of a sport here as we are a rugby-mad nation. So this going viral is going to be a lot of people’s first time seeing a non-NZ team performing a Haka.

I think what really upset people is that the Wildcats got the word’s really wrong.. So from a NZ point of view it’s a bit like if another country decided to sing the Star Spangled Banner to celebrate their culture and then got all the words wrong, mumbled a lot of it and sung it all out of time

What do you think? Do you think it was done maliciously? Most Wildcats fans feel that the team was shamed for no reason, that the outrage was not warranted.

I think it definitely was just a lack of due diligence rather than anything malicious. It’s easy to overlook things when you are dealing with a different culture. The dances are all quite different to each other (well they are if you know what you’re looking for), completely different languages and the movements are specific to where it originates from.

I think it definitely was just a lack of due diligence rather than anything malicious.

Most places here have their own Haka’s anyway, one written to directly reflect where they are from. For instance, my high school and my University both have their own Haka’s.

Also I think it’s important to note that the Haka means a lot to New Zealanders in general, not just those of Maori descent, it is pretty synonymous with NZ as a country and is one of those things that brings us all together rather than divides us. For instance our Army uses a Haka to welcome back the bodies of fallen soldiers and New Zealanders of no Maori heritage are just as likely to grow up learning a Haka through school or sports or Kapa Haka competitions as Maori kids these days.

BYU performs the Haka, why isn’t there any outrage for the Cougars?

Most places here have their own Haka’s anyway, one written to directly reflect where they are from.

From what I have gathered the BYU situation is a little bit different, their Haka was written specifically for them by a Maori on their coaching staff and I would assume that they were taught the meaning behind it as well as how to perform it properly.

What suggestion would you have for the Arizona football team moving forward?

Personally I would be happy for the Wildcats to continue doing a Haka if they learned how to perform it properly and understood what it means and why it is done.

I would be happy for the Wildcats to continue doing a Haka if they learned how to perform it properly and understood what it means and why it is done

Although perhaps if they are wanting to celebrate their connection to Samoan culture a Siva Tau would be more appropriate. Consulting Ngati Toa or one of the other Iwi would be a good start if they would like to keep performing a Haka.

You are probably always going to get some of the outrage crowd bitching and moaning about it but I would like to think that most New Zealanders would be ok with it if it’s treated with the respect and done properly.

I asked if Rawiri had any final message, “It’s nice to talk to people about our culture. ‘Ka kite ano’ that means ‘see you later’ in Te Reo Maori.”

So long for now Rawiri, it was wonderful connecting with you all the way from New Zealand.

We asked Wildcats fans for suggestions on new dances or chants, and also for what they would call them, here are some of the best:

Nov 26, 2014; Lahaina, Maui, HI, USA; Arizona Wildcats cheerleaders dance against the San Diego State Aztecs during the 2014 EA Sports Maui Invitational championship game at the Lahaina Civic Center. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

• Keep doing what they’re doing and rename it the “Bear Down” Haka
• It’s all good. We’ll just Nae Nae.
• Maybe the Curly Shuffle for now on?
• Perform the Siva Tau which is the Samoan war dance.
• Speaking on behalf of the entire world community of Scots, I want them to appropriate the use of Bagpipes and Drums before and during the game. Also, we need the Hoff to ride in bareback.
• Maybe they should have Michael Flately come in and teach them how to Riverdance, or will that offend some Leprechauns?
• Call it ‘The Desert Storm’
• The word dance isn’t very intimidating…what about “The Beardown Brawl”? Or maybe “The Beardown Strut”?
• Do a Zona Dance or a Cat Dance.
• Learn how to do a specific Haka the right way and make sure we say the name.
• Have a new Samoan chant made just for the Arizona football team.

All great ideas! We will forward this article to Greg Byrne to help out the program.

And, just in case you haven’t gotten enough Haka, here’s one more video on the differences between Haka’s:

Next: Arizona Football: The Traditional Pregame Haka is No More at Arizona