Bread & Circuses #2: "Dismantling Sport's Colonial Foundations"

BREAD & CIRCUSES | COLUMN | WHENUA | TOUCHING GRASS

Written by Luke Fisher (he/him) | @lukefish7__ | Contributing Columnist

Edited by Tashi Donnelly (she/her) | @tashi_rd | Feature Editor

Sport occupies an enormous part of our country’s psyche. Life's problems just seem to disappear when there is a big game on, as we unite in the nation’s pubs and garages to watch our superstars take on the world. We love to watch and we love to play. The classic Kiwi backyard barbecue isn't complete without a Gilbert rugby ball (even sitting half-inflated in the garden, it’s an essential part of the aesthetic), and the summer beach scene isn’t complete without a plastic cricket bat, a tennis ball, and a dog that doesn’t know the rules. Being a golf-playing, football-adoring, sunscreen-reliant male, I love this about our country. But it is worth learning how we got into this relationship. There are numerous areas of history that we should not be proud of — sport gets no exemption.

The unfortunate truth is that sport was introduced to Aotearoa and many other nations as a colonial tool. British settlers believed encouraging Indigenous peoples to participate in sport was a great way to enforce Western traditions and beliefs about ‘dignified’ behaviour. According to the Journal of Sport for Development, settlers “attempted to infantilize Māori sports and destroy Māori knowledge, language, and culture.” To get a better understanding of sport and colonialism, I had a kōrero with AUT senior lecturer Dr Sierra Keung. Keung, whose research interests include Māori and Pacific athlete development and wellbeing, says the British used sports to both control and weaponise Indigenous people’s physicality and talent. “It was another tool for control… ‘We need you for these things, and then once you’ve delivered on those goods for the organisation or team, we don’t need you anymore.’” While progress has been made to combat these attitudes, Keung says they still somewhat exist today.

Let’s wind the clock back to pre-Endeavour times, because it's important to understand that Māori were engaging in sports long before the arrival of Europeans. In te ao Māori, sports are gifts given by atua (gods or supernatural beings) meant to ensure the well-being and development of humankind. They existed in all kinds of forms and served many purposes. Some sports were designed for training purposes, others simply existed for the whole community to enjoy. They were played as groups and individuals, day and night, with and without equipment. As the Journal of Sport for Development explains, “the spiritual and ancestral connection to atua, the importance of whānau, the drive to excel, the expression of joy, and the pursuit of mana are important tenets of Māori sports.” When settlers arrived, they imposed a culture that prioritised structure, hierarchy, and individual achievement — values that still dominate sport today.

While Europeans wielded sport as a tool of colonisation, Māori repurposed it for cultural reclamation. Thanks to their mammoth efforts over multiple decades to resist assimilation and play sports in terms of their attitudes and values, we are in a much better space now. However, according to Keung, there are still many issues with how sport runs in Aotearoa that need to be addressed. Māori and Pasifika are the front and centre of many of our big sports teams, yet they are still underrepresented in other areas of the sporting ecosystem such as coaching, psychology and leadership positions. 

Furthermore, cultural, socioeconomic, and institutional barriers to participation still stand in the way of equity, from the grassroots to the international stage. Keung says “A lot of [Māori and Pasifika] families are financially and time-poor, and that directly affects participation.” For larger or intergenerational homes, it can become a matter of who can go, and who must stay behind. Kids miss out on playing for the All Blacks or the Silver Ferns — realising their dreams — because the system doesn’t support them. It’s fantastic that there are Māori and Pasifika role models at the forefront of our most successful sports teams, Keung says, but we need to create a pipeline where international glory flows all the way down to the grassroots level. “We always talk about the 1% that make it to the top, but what about the 99% that don’t?”

According to Keung, there are a few key areas of improvement that will make things better not only for Indigenous peoples, but for all of us. The first is to take a more holistic approach to athlete development. Often, she says, coaches and academies focus too much on performance. Instead, they should take a more holistic approach, developing all aspects of an athlete’s wellbeing, which is proven to boost performance. Part of this is catering for cultural needs and creating an environment everyone is comfortable in. There is “no use coaching them skills if they don’t feel good in the environment. If they hate being there, nothing’s going to stick.” The best way to do this is to hire more Indigenous coaches, physios, sports psychologists, and club directors. Keung says “baby steps” have been taken by some organisations in this area, with Māori and Pasifika advisory boards being set up, although their advice sometimes falls on deaf ears.

Something we can all do to enrich our collective experience is to take lessons from the te ao Māori approach to sport. When Māori had mana motuhake (full autonomy over their lives), sports, first and foremost, existed as a way for communities to connect. To Keung, “sport for us … it's just what we do. It's irrelevant what the sport is. We could be doing anything, but if it allows us to connect, allows us to be who we are … that's why we do sport.” She says that traditional Western values fly in the face of what sport, in its purest form, is all about. “If we’re only measuring success through a Western high-performance model, we’re missing the bigger picture of why sport is important in our communities.” For sport to be mana-enhancing, it must be about creating strong and meaningful connections. This looks like coaches taking the time to ask a player if everything’s ok at home. It looks like teammates uplifting each other after someone makes a mistake. It looks like teams getting together off the field — perhaps even accompanied by the odd beverage or two.

It's wonderful that we are a nation of sports fanatics, but I think it’s important to be aware of our past and to always aim higher. As they say, those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. For me, it’s about continuing to build on the connections I’ve made in my social football team. It’s my team, not football, that makes Monday evenings one of the best parts of my week. It’s also about respecting my golf course, which is built on stolen whenua. I’d love to finish this article by writing something about how sport can unite our country, but I think Nelson Mandela did it better than I ever could: 

“Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to unite in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair.”