1890: Whakarewarewa Rugby
July 24, 2020
By AHNZ
c.1890, Whakarewarewa’s local (Maori) rugby team.
I think we forget that, for most of our history, Western and Maori New Zealanders grew up in parallel worlds.
The Maori’s world stumbled along in comparatively low productivity, the population nearly becoming extinct c.1900. The Western New Zealanders became highly productive and thrived. By the 1960s the survivors decided to exit their settlements and join the cities Western New Zealanders had built: The ‘Second Great Migration’.
The Whakarewarewa Maoris in the above picture were an early community to span both worlds. Rotorua, created by The State in 1881, took international tourism for an economic base. These rugby players would have mixed with Westerners from all over the world as well has benefiting from their commerce. The certainly lived in more modern accommodations than the tourist attraction they’re posing in here.
The dwellings, in my opinion at the very least, are an example of ‘plastic Maori’ just as much as a Lindauer or Goldie painting. They were made to please tourist’s fantasy in their own day and live on as fantasy history today. But, like the soap operas on TV, there are lots of people who think it’s really true.
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Image ref. Uncredited; teara.govt.nz
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