New Zealand, the Way the World Could Be

Kieran, standing centre. pn181

This is the New Zealand in which I wish to live and die (Ka Ora, Ka Mate); a country where All Black captain Kieran Read leads the haka —and points our country's  way forward— before Saturday's game against Italy.  

It is not the haka lampooned  by Auckland University Engineering students dressed up in grass skirts in 1979 and many others since, or the haka Don Brash links to Maori domestic violence.  

It is the haka performed by a Pakeha who said it was something he'd always wanted to do, a great honour. Something which took hours of practice,  and in which he recognized and understood its cultural significance by acknowledging the iwi, Ngati Toa Rangitira and their tipuna Te Rauparaha,  who created it.  Nga mihi, Kieran.

--ACW