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"Founding of Australia" by Algernon Talmage (1871-1939). Raising the flag when the First Fleet arrived in 1788 carrying convicts and soldiers for the first British settlement.

Invasion, settlement and the myth of terra nullius

When Europeans first set foot in Australia and New Zealand, settlement was not foremost in their minds. As discussed in chapter 2, the British in particular were initially on the lookout for business opportunities – trading partners, exotic goods to feed the domestic market. Ideas of settlement came later, and only under particular circumstances: there had to be land for the taking.

“Land for the taking” presupposes the concept of terra nullius – a Latin term meaning “nobody’s land”, i.e. land that is unoccupied and uninhabited. The idea that Australia and (to a lesser extent) New Zealand were examples of terra nullius was key to the transformation of these lands into settler colonies. In both countries the idea was a myth that would have tragic consequences for the indigenous population.

First encounters – Australia

Actually, Captain Cook was not the discoverer of Australia, even from a European perspective: the Dutch had made landfall on the continent more than a century before. And, of course, the real “discoverers” were there long before that. The indigenous population of Australia represents probably the

domestic market hjemmemarked/ heimemarknad

The Haka

The haka is a traditional Māori dance involving rhythmic movements, stamping, and slapping the chest and thighs. It is accompanied by chanting and fierce facial expressions. In spite of its frightening aspect, it is used as a welcome or a celebration of a special event. The “Ka Mate” haka is used by the New Zealand rugby team (the “All Blacks”) as a pre-game ritual.

TEXT 1 –

irresistible uimotståelig/ uimotståeleg

The All Blacks perform the haka before their Rugby Championship test match against South Africa in 2021.

The Haka isn’t yours – Stop Performing it

By Morgan Godfery

Ever more non-Māori are doing the haka – but shouldn’t be unless its integrity is preserved.

For a good number of white people, the haka is apparently irresistible. I wonder if any of the French lawyers who were protesting their government’s pension reform with a haka, the Māori dance form, have ever set foot in New Zealand?

“Ka Mate”, the Ngāti Toa haka the All Blacks perform pre-match, delights global audiences every year. Contemporary teams take it dead seriously, but in the late-19th and early-20th century the mostly white team would turn to the British crowds, slapping their thighs and hanging their tongues out for “entertainment”.

The earliest footage is excruciating. It’s a piss-take. But the performance caught on, especially after rugby union went professional in the 1990s. Cable television and mass media took Ka Mate to the world and the world loved it. In the past three years alone, non-Māori took “haka” as the name of a Canadian energy drink brand, James Cameron has said he is keen on including a “space haka” in his Avatar sequels, and The Rock and Jason Momoa – Polynesians, yes, but non-Māori – sometimes perform haka as a red-carpet party trick.

It’s tempting to write this off as cultural appropriation – taking an indigenous cultural item without permission, usually for a personal or commercial gain. And in one sense it certainly is. But in another sense it seems like an unhelpful idea to reach for. “Western culture”, if it’s possible to confine something spread across millennia and continents in a two-word term, functions best in the spirit of open exchange, critique, imitation and improvement. But cultural appropriation would charge that a “spirit of cultural exchange” is often just a cover for “theft”.

Descriptively that’s obviously true. Not only did empires take indigenous people’s land and labour, but they often took assimilated parts of their cultures and languages too. Taboo, the English word, is a borrowing from the Polynesia “tapu”. Yet the former strips the later of its original force and meaning, reducing it to the status of a “no-no” rather than the world-ordering term and idea tapu is and was.

This is why I prefer to think about “taking” the haka in Māori terms. The relevant question is: does the performance, whether in New Zealand or France, retain the original haka’s mana and mauri? The easiest way for a non-Māori person to understand those two terms is to ask: does the performance maintain the haka’s integrity?

In Rotorua, the tourist hotspot in New Zealand’s central North Island, Te Arawa – the local tribe and perhaps the best haka performers in the country – share their art and coach their visitors in certain haka. It’s an exchange western tourists would recognise as constituting a very public good. Those same tourists take the haka they learn home. They perform it as best they remember. This, of course, isn’t cultural appropriation because the haka retain their mana and mauri. Why? Because Te Arawa were in control.

It was up to their tribe’s experts to pick which haka to teach, what history to share and what the instructions for performing were. In a word, the power was still Te Arawa’s. But that isn’t the case with, say, the French lawyers. In their performance the haka is a protest gimmick, a way to jimmy up attention. I appreciate that – at least in the sense haka can take form in a protest. But it isn’t, as some Europeans and North Americans seem to understand it, an act of unrestrained id. It isn’t necessarily just an outlet for anger. To the contrary: the best haka exercise control and consideration in word and motion. It’s a deliberate art like any other, albeit with a force far stronger.

Until Europeans and North Americans can drop that (probably racist) idea that haka is all about releasing anger, one general rule applies: don’t perform a haka you were never given permission to. That’s the best way to preserve its mana and mauri.

(Source: see p. 419) excruciating forferdelig, uutholdelig / forferdeleg, uuthaldeleg piss-take latterliggjøring, parodi / latterleggjering, parodi to confine å avgrense, å innskrenke to charge å hevde, å påstå to strip å frata / å ta frå to jimmy up å vekke, å tenne id: in psychoanalysis, the deepest part of the unconscious mind that represents the most basic natural human needs and emotions such as hunger, anger, and the wish for pleasure

UNDERSTAND

a How does the writer distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable use of the haka? b Why does he find it acceptable that visitors to the Te

Awara take the haka home and perform it? c Why does he object to the

French lawyers’ use of the haka?

B Settler Nations: Australia and New Zealand

REFLECT: Which Country?

How much do you know about Australia and New Zealand? Take the quiz, and then read the text to find out how many questions you got right. Note that “Both” is also a possible answer. 1 Which country’s inhabitants are known as “Kiwis”? 2 Which country is a federation of states? 3 In which country is rugby a popular sport? 4 Which country is a former British colony? 5 Which country is a “nuclear-free zone”? 6 Which country has a Senate and a House of

Representatives? 7 Which country has a small city as its capital? 8 Which country has been severely hit by wildfires in recent years? 9 Which country has been criticised for its immigration policies in recent years? 10 Which country has a female prime minister (as of 2022)?

KEY CONCEPTS

– antipodean – Aussies/Kiwis – settler colony – dominion – unified state vs. federation – point-based immigration – climate crisis

New Zealand landscape.