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Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 11. May 28 1979

Good, Clean Fun?

Good, Clean Fun?

Perhaps there are those among us who would consider that this twenty-five year tradition is 'good clean fun', given and taken in the spirit of capping. But this is far from the truth. Many groups, especially Maori students, have always held the view that the haka party is racist and an affront to the Maori Community. This feeling came to a head this year, when Maori activists from the He Taua (War Party) group managed to end the haka party in a confrontation which resulted in the hospitalization of several engineers, and the arrest of eleven Te Haua members on charges of rioting.

Thus two antogonistic views developed: those who see that the issue is primarily one of racism, and those (mainly the engineers) who see the issue purely in terms of the violence committed. Janet Roth immediately released a press statement which stated that the engineers were meted out only the punishment that they deserved and urging that all charges against the Maori activists be dropped. Naturally, this statement angered the engineers, and in a heated forum the next day, a motion of no confidence in Roth was moved. As this article is written the result of this motion is not known.

However, to return to the debate at the National Commission, both Haigh and Roth gave their versions of the incident, the differences being that Haigh claimed that the engineers were unaware of any bad feeling towards the haka party and that he was concerned only with the violence that was used on his friends.

It would be best to clear up this first statement of Haigh's right now. To claim that the engineers were unaware of any opposition to their actions goes beyond the bounds of comprehension. Maori students have expressed their opposition to the haka party since its inception. They have made representations to the engineers calling for the end to the haka party. AUSA has policy which opposes the haka party. To be as liberal as possible to the engineers, the most they could claim is that they ignored the opposition in the mistaken belief that opposition to the haka party is unfounded.