Maori win battle to control All Blacks' haka ritual

A Maori performs a Haka
A Maori performs a traditional haka. Photograph: MJ Kim/Getty Images

The eye-rolling, tongue-flicking haka war dance made famous by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team was officially handed back to a Maori tribe yesterday to stop it being ripped off by Hollywood directors and international advertising campaigns.

The New Zealand government assigned intellectual property rights in the traditional Maori haka, the Ka Mate, to Ngati Toa, a North Island tribal group.

The new agreement is largely symbolic, but it is considered immensely significant by Maori leaders. "Ngati Toa's primary objective is to prevent the misappropriation and culturally inappropriate use of the Ka Mate haka," the official settlement letter read.

The tribe has been battling for a decade to stop commercial exploitation of the haka, saying its use in film and television has been culturally insensitive and has undermined its traditional significance.

Among uses it objected to was a 2006 television advertisement by the car maker Fiat in which Italian women performed a slapdash rendition of the haka, which is traditionally performed only by men.

There was outrage the following year when New Zealand's bakery of the year awards featured a mock performance by gingerbread men. Ngati Toa elders were also incensed when the haka was performed in the Hollywood movie Forever Strong, about a high school rugby team in the US.

The tribe has tried to trademark the Ka Mate several times over the past decade to limit commercial abuse but has failed, largely because of concerns it might charge the All Blacks for performing it.

John Key, New Zealand's prime minister, said the issue was cultural redress and not money. If a company wanted to use the haka for commercial reasons there should be a recognition of the tribe's cultural interests. How this would be handled in the final treaty settlement was still a matter of discussion, he told the New Zealand Herald.

He said he did not believe the All Blacks would be considered as commercially exploiting the haka.

"They are our national sports team and they have had the rendition of Ka Mate for a long time ... There will neither be any restrictions on them in terms of their use or rendition of Ka Mate, nor any charge for doing so," he added.

The agreement was a special provision in a $NZ121m (£44m) compensation package awarded to eight tribes over land and human rights abuses dating back 160 years.
• The headline of this article was amended on Thursday February 12 2009.

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