Patu!

As David Crerar’s excellent television documentary A Political Game (2004) shows, the historic rugby rivalry between New Zealand’s All Blacks and South Africa’s Springbokke has always been one of opposing world views, dating back to the first Bokke tour of New Zealand in 1921. But it took another 60 years, the institutionalisation of Apartheid and various massacres in its name for the New Zealanders to say, enough! And so, in 1981, vast parts of the nation’s populace rose in protest against the Springbokke’s playing the All Blacks that year, resulting in sometimes violent altercations with those who couldn’t care less, or worse.

Merata Mita, arguably the greatest Māori director of her time, filmed the events – and what was originally supposed to be merely a short TV documentary became a milestone of New Zealand cinema. She later said: “Yes, Patu! has a Māori perspective, but it does not override the mass mobilisation of New Zealand’s white middle class, neither does it take credit from those who rightly deserve it, everyone who put themselves on the line. My perspective encourages people to look at themselves and examine the ground they stand on.” Remember Patu! when the next big sports event in a place of dubious political repute looms…

– Olaf Möller

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