All Blacks Victorious

Yesterday started off with a trip to the Auckland museum, which would rival anything you would see in the US for presentation and historical artifacts. We spent nearly three hours at the museum but were only able to get through the first of three floors. The first floor focused on Maori (the New Zealand natives) and other Polynesian and Micronesian cultures. One of the more fascinating pieces of information was the approximate age of the Maori civilization in comparison to the other pacific islands. Indonesia had its first human population around 3,000 BC, and there was a slow migration east with Hawaii and Easter Island habited around 400 AD. New Zealand was relatively recent in 1,000 AD. Take a look at the map, it’s almost unfathomable how people landed on Hawaii. It’s a long long way from anything else. There are plenty of small tropical islands in fairly close proximity to New Zealand: Fiji, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, and many more. Hopefully we’ll get to visit a couple over the next year.

New Zealand has a much different relationship with their natives than in the US. For example, in the museum a bulk of that first floor was solely dedicated to Maori artifacts and even contained an exhibit on highly disputed treaties between the British and the Maori regarding the sovereignty of the people and land. Apparently in the English version of document, the Maori agreed to hand over complete sovereignty to the British, however in the Maori version it suggests that the British are only allowed to govern their own people and lands. Just the symbolism of having an unbiased version of this in the museum seems to show a different attitude towards natives than currently exists in the US.

The Maori impact was also found at the rugby game. The NZ national anthem has two parts: first a Maori version and afterwards the English version. Furthermore the team performs a Maori warrior dance called a Haka before the match. Pretty moving stuff, the crowd goes completely wild for the dance. See picture to the right of the team performing the Haka, the guy in the front is Richie McCaw, the team captain and to his right is New Zealand’s Troy Polamalu. His name is Ma’a Nonu and he’s got the hair and style to match Polamalu complete with flashy orange cleats.

The Aussies didn’t put up much of a fight. The game was 17-0 pretty quickly. The crowd reveled in the score and the sarcastic comments coming from the stands only seemed to increase as the game went on. I still have very little idea of how the game is played, although it’s still entertaining with some bone crunching NFL style hits and clever passing. Reaching out for some help with the rules didn’t get me all that far either as the teenager/dad combo sitting next to me tried to explain things, but it seemed like even they had little explanation for the penalties and strategy. Game ended up 30-14 with the Aussies getting a late try (5 points plus 2 for a kick), so the game wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. On the crowded train back to the city, the All Blacks fans beamed with confidence and took every opportunity to take a verbal shot at an Aussie. You could tell this means a lot to the people, as New Zealand sees themselves as the smaller country in the underdog role, and rugby is the one thing they are exceptionally good at. Perhaps it’s like Canada and US in hockey.

Get used to the rugby posts, as there will be many more with the rugby world cup coming to town in September and October.