sport and cultural diversity - Sport New Zealand

Strickland, Inu, Palamo, Fifita, Pole, Tapatuetoa, Langi – an all-Maori and Polynesian
[sic] team (Hyde, 1993:63).
Tom Hyde was only partially correct. The sports impacted by Pacific immigration were relatively
few in number, as the subsequent article makes clear – netball, rugby league, rugby, boxing.
There are some examples provided of Pacific peoples playing tennis, basketball or cricket but
they are few in number. And there is no reference to other sports such as yachting, equestrian
or soccer. Hyde makes the point that not only are there historical reasons for participating in
some sports and not others, but Pacific peoples made up a growing proportion of the age
groups in Auckland that played sport. The under 15s and those under age 25 were increasingly
Pacific peoples, both as immigrants but especially as New Zealand-born. Also, sports were an
increasingly attractive option as professionalism provided a career option for many and a
significant return for what they did as highly paid sports people. The article reports that a
number of sports organisations had responded to this involvement, although many of the
examples focus on Maori participation (netball, golf, cricket). The latter did establish a Maori
and Pacific Island subcommittee while Auckland Tennis, with the help of the ASB Bank,
established a new tennis centre in Manukau to encourage those from the area to play tennis.
Hyde also canvassed some opinions which highlighted the discrimination that Pacific peoples
faced in some sports.
By the time of the 1999 Pacific Vision conference, the issues of Pacific peoples participation in
some sports and not others, the benefits of participation and the importance of sports people
as role models received attention. Tasileta Te’evale provided an overview of these issues. It is
noticeable that there was still very little by way of background information or research and the
responses from sporting organisations were, at best, ad hoc and driven by individuals who were
interested in the issues. She noted the connections between sporting involvement and both
personal and community well-being, and introduced a panel that included April Ieremia (Silver
Fern), Darryl Suasua (Black Fern’s national coach) and Jeremy Stanley (medical student and
rugby player). The discussion was interesting, not the least because they were asked to
consider whether it was possible to balance academic success with sporting success.
In preparation for looking at the very different situation in Auckland after 2000, we did a search
of the international literature to see what had been done elsewhere to address the needs of
immigrant and ethnic minorities by sporting organisations. It was surprising how little there
15