Was it a mock haka or mocking the haka?

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Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

America’s Cup partygoers slammed for ‘cultural appropriation’ in mock haka video

Footage of Pākehā people at an America’s Cup party pulling pūkana faces at the camera has gone viral on social media, labelled as a “shameful” example of “cultural appropriation”.

The footage was initially shared by Belgian DJ Netsky who has since removed it and publicly apologised for the post.

Internationally reknowed DJ Netsky was working at the party, which took place on a private yacht docked in Auckland, when he filmed the video.

In the footage, a number of Pākehā people can be seen pulling pūkana faces at the camera and using a stick as a taiaha.

As a heteronormative white cis male, I am not allowed to have an opinion on if something is racist or not, I just have to wait for the outrage on twitter to let me know.

But if I was allowed an opinion, I’d suggest this.

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That this is a bunch of white kids celebrating NZs win with the the celebratory images they see of Māori that we wrap all our tourism branding up in.

I saw a mock haka, not a mocking of the haka.

That we are now utterly incapable of nuance thanks to woke lynch mobs is testament to how much we are actually losing from cancel culture.

This was a bunch of white kids excited NZ won the America’s Cup and celebrating in a manner that is quintessentially kiwi. Were they dumb and had no real knowledge of the culture they were trying to emulate? Of course, but were they cross burning haters of the Māori culture? Of course not, and to try and conflate their actions to racism is a smack in the face to real and actual racism.

Maori are 380% more likely to be convicted of a crime and 200% more likely to die from heart disease and suicide. Maori are paid 18% less and 34% leave school without a qualification. Maori die earlier and suffer more.

Changing that takes more than hashtag lynching someone you don’t know on twitter.

Twitter outrage is righteousness porn for the middle classes. It is the Opiate of the mortgage free and perpetually woke.

We need to be kinder to people and crueler to Corporations!

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17 COMMENTS

  1. Every year around the 17th March, I see people from a lot of ethnicities pretending they are Irish, attempting dancing to Riverdance levels, some dressing as stereotypical Leprechauns, even though they have no connection to Ireland.
    Perhaps some people need to stop taking themselves so seriously.

    • How do you know they are pretending to be Irish many of us are part Irish after all they were part of the colonial settlers.

      • How do you know those doing the Haka aren’t connected to Iwi? You dont do you Einstein.
        The Reo and Kapa Haka is instructed in how many schools across NZ. Many kids including my own are proud to be able to participate,absorb and learn it. But racist knobs like you get offended if they do, purely on skin colour.
        Like I’ve said your a racist and it seems you always will be.

        • “How do you know those doing the Haka aren’t connected to Iwi?” Because if they were, they wouldn’t have misused the traditional challenge in the way they did… This was on a yacht, owned by a multi millionaire, and the guests were all from that “group”.. This qualifies as obnoxious behaviour by privileged children who have obviously no real connection past watching silly ads on tv… In saying that, the overreaction to this childish and obnoxious behaviour denotes an entitled attitude that is infecting far too many intellectually mediocre and morally bankrupt spoilt brats… As such, I view it as evidence of just how vacuous NZ’s societal culture became as a result of the last administrations encouragement toward being self centered rather than having any concept of their place in NZs ongoing development.. labeling people like you have, ultimately reflects back upon you rather than any useful dialogue…

    • Dear God. Watch the aged Spanish ballerina with dementia respiritualised hearing Russian Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Dying Swan, and try not to cry, let alone to wail about cultural appropriation. Does the gentle approach of autumn heralding my compulsion to start quoting Pommie Keats – which used to embarrass my school-bound kids – make me a culture thief ?

      Ok. Let’s start with abolishing cricket and rugby football, both cultural appropriation, dreadful colonialist symbols, and forcing males to be pre-occupied with balls.

      Abolish shoes too. Jesus didn’t wear shoes and nor did Buddha or Mohammed, they wore bare feet and sandals, and all this shoe business casts cultural aspersions upon the great world religions – and on some good pagan gods too- so out with all shoes in the interests of lreligious harmony.

      Maybe walk around naked, in silence…

      • Year after year, male Otago University students clad in tutus, feature in capping concerts, usually, if not always, performing Tchaikovsky’s Dance of The little Swans.

        As far as I know, the Russian Embassy, hasn’t wailed about cultural appropriation, and nor have Russian thugs gone to Dunedin to beat up and bloody the blokes in tutus who bear zilch resemblance to the Bolshoi Ballet – or any self-respecting ballet.

      • Yep. Like I said maybe people need to stop taking themselves so seriously. Your case in point snow drop.

  2. I agree. I thought it a fairly innocent attempt to assimilate being kiwi albeit not done overly well.

    But the outrage machine kicked in cos’ the world is just seething with outrage at everything nowadays and I thought we’re not too far off howling at the moon at non Maori trying to speak te reo.

    With that bullshit reaction don’t be surprised if that toe in the water by ordinary non Maori to try and be one is removed.

  3. There are consequences for settling with the crown for cash. One consequence is that in return for settlement quantum maori must sacrifice its dialects so that a homogeneous maori culture can be promotes to the world. There is no better promotion of the moari culture than spontaneous outbursts of the haka in from of the global media. It doesn’t matter if they’re teetz at doing haka because it’s Te ao maoris own fault for doing deals with out thinking it through.Even at a basic level we are not in a combative relationship. It’s all been settled.

    Now, y’all can do it the long way pr y’all can park your outrage and teach maori properly in all schools and that’s that because we have arrived at a point where tens of billions of dollars are on the line and we got amateur’s just butchering the haka. So quick as possible y’all can park y’all outrage and teach the two in all schools properly.

  4. What is culture?
    Is it the automatic, day-to-day mundane activities of contemporary life? Is it the the music, the art?
    Or is the forced actions? The contrived displays? The senseless reproduction of yesteryears actions – suited to the environment and era in which they were enacted?
    Asking for a friend.

  5. I would like to see these people do haka and pukana when they have are not loaded up on alcohol.

  6. I would like to see these people do haka and pukana when they have are not loaded up on alcohol.

  7. I would like to see these people do haka and pukana when they have are not loaded up on alcohol.

  8. I would like to see these people do haka and pukana when they have are not loaded up on alcohol.

  9. “ I would like to see these people do their Maori performance sober.” The answer’s in your hands, but if you didn’t like it drunk, it could be even worse watching it sober.

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