NZ Maori win first indigenous football internationals

The Maori Football team Te Ikaroa lay down their challenge with their pre-match haka

New Zealand Maori football teams competed against indigenous Australian teams this weekend, in the first ever international matches between teams of indigenous peoples from either sides of the Tasman Sea.

Male and female Maori Football Te Ikaroa teams took on the Australian First Nations Mariya teams in Auckland on Saturday, and ultimately proved too strong for their rivals, Radio New Zealand reports.

The women's Maori team won 5-0, and the men's team similarly dominated, winning 3-2 in a match described as "a typically hard-fought trans-Tasman battle with tempers flaring in the stifling summer heat".

Both games started with Maori players performing a haka which they had developed during their training camp; while the indigenous Australians responded with a traditional corroboree dance.

Breaking into the mainstream

Speaking before Saturday's matches, Australian First Nations player Keifer Dotta stressed how hard it is for aboriginal players to break into the mainstream. "When it comes to soccer there's probably one percent or less of aboriginals playing soccer. I only know two or three playing in the (Australian top level) A-League. It's very hard for us to get identified for the talents we have," he told Radio NZ.

But with Australia's National Indigenous Football Championship (NIFC) now in its second year, tour director Bernie McLeod told the Australian version of FourFourTwo magazine that this weekend's internationals would help find and inspire more indigenous young footballers.

Despite the dominance of rugby and cricket, football is Australia's number one participation sport with over one million playing regularly, but there are as few as 6,000 aboriginal players.

Stepping stone

Approximately 600,000 people living in New Zealand identify as Maori, around one-sixth of the total population. However, football is not an activity that is generally associated with indigenous culture.

But Maori women's team coach Phillip Pickering-Parker, who is also chairman of Maori Football NZ, said that the organisation's goal is to instil pride in Maori culture through sport.

"We're trying to use football as a vehicle to use those with Maori lineage to not only play the game but also to explore the culture of Maori and what it means to be Maori," he said.

New Zealand-based football blogger Enzo Giordani said a Maori football team is "creating a space for everyone to participate where they feel welcomed and valued, and allowing them to feel connected to their culture while playing the game they love".

"This game in New Zealand is a stepping stone for all the players to be highlighted and some could be considered as potential players for the (Australian) National Premier League level and beyond," he wrote.

The two football matches were billed as a Test series

Reporting by Alistair Coleman

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