Rugby union is the national sport of New Zealand with the All Blacks as the national team. The All Blacks are made up of many races and cultures, and seven of the fifteen starters in the 2011 Rugby World Cup final were of Polynesian descent. However, although the national team has a long history of success, it also has on occasion been the subject of racial issues. On the international stage there has been controversy in the tours of and by South Africa, the most famous of which was the 1981 tour by South Africa. These tours drew much international criticism as many states were boycotting South Africa due to apartheid. On the domestic stage there have been issues of racism in the Super Rugby competition. There have also been some instances of racism in college rugby and club rugby. Racism is quite a serious human rights issue in New Zealand, which was highlighted in the Universal Periodic Review by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Rugby tours of South Africa
Due to apartheid in South Africa, it was the policy of the New Zealand Rugby Union not to select Māori players for tours to South Africa prior to 1970. There was much internal and external criticism of the tours, with the slogan 'No Māori - No Tour' being prominent in New Zealand. Recently the Human Rights Commissioner has commended this as the starting point of the campaign to stop the tours. In 1969 an anti-racist rugby tour group named Halt All Racist Tours (HART) was set up to protest future games between New Zealand and South Africa. Some tours were called off due to such pressure, the most controversial of the tours to go ahead was the 1981 tour.
Background
The first tour by a South African Rugby team was in 1921. The South African team played one game against a team named the natives, which was made up entirely of Māori. A South African journalist reported that the Springboks were ‘frankly disgusted’ at playing against ‘a band of coloured men'. One telegraph sent back to South Africa by a journalist stated; "Bad enough having to play officially designated New Zealand Natives, but spectacle thousands Europeans frantically cheering on band of coloured man to defeat members of own race was too much for Springboks who frankly disgusted." Because of this policy many of New Zealand's greatest Māori players, such as George Nēpia, missed out on these tours. Public opinion was strongly against the tours and eventually lead to a change. Despite this Māori were still avid supporters of their national team. When the policy was changed in 1970 only four Māori were allowed to travel and were classified as 'honorary whites'. The obvious trouble with accepting the tours was that New Zealand would be seen as supporting the Apartheid regime. However, it is easy to overlook the fact that many players grow up hoping to one day play for the All Blacks and to miss out would be devastating.
Halt All Racist Tours
The tour policy of South Africa was not well received by the public in New Zealand. In 1969 a group of Auckland University students headed by John Minto formed the group Halt All Racist Tours(HART). The main purpose was to provide a group to protest the tours. The 1970 tour went ahead but South African Rugby Football Union allowed a mixed team to be sent. One of the ways that HART got its message around was by using Badges. The 1973 tour was postponed due to public pressure put on the Labour government, pressure which HART was a major player in. HART's main function was to organise and co-ordinate protests, and while it was not the major player in the 1981 protests it still is seen as one of the main reasons for the eventual discontinuance of the tours. Many other protest groups developed from the same ideals promoted by HART, one prominent group that was very much involved in racial issues was CARE, an organisation that shared many members with HART.
1976 Tour and Olympic Boycott
In 1976 the All Blacks toured South Africa, with five Maori players and one of Samoan origin. After the IOC did not sanction New Zealand in regard to the 1976 Summer Olympics, many African countries boycotted this Olympic Games.
