To paraphrase Penn and Teller, “Maori wonderfulness” is bullshit.
The psychology of sport isn’t new, but Maori concepts in this space are proving a game-changer for up-and-coming sports stars.
Really?
Mental skills coach Luke Rowe (Ngati Raukawa, Tuwharetoa) is a clinical psychologist changing up the field of high-performance sports training.
He coaches players through the psychological challenges of injury or not making the squad.
Or to put it another way, he provides a shoulder to cry on.
“Being able to separate out your identity from what you do is crucial,” he said.
“‘Am I a shit player? Does it mean I’m a shit person?’ The challenge we have is that it’s all sort of being integrated into the same thing.”
[…] Purakau (Maori creation stories) are just one of the methods he uses to help players reframe challenges.
“The purakau concept is not a new thing for Maori, and how it’s applied in the health context is evolving and it’s growing and gaining some real momentum.”
Sure. Oh, and use of creation stories as an aid to psychological challenges isn’t exactly a uniquely Maori thing, as Joseph Campbell would say if he were still alive.
[…] “For me, [it’s] about creating spaces for Maori-Pasifika to operate within which should be the predominant culture or language of that space.
“The people in those environments are largely brown but the way that it looks from the outside is still monocultural.”
In simple English, if Maori are given Maori spaces to do their stuff in, instead of having to do things whitey’s way, they will perform better.
Shooter Tiana Metuarau (Ngati Porou, Ngai Tahu, Cook Island Maori) is no stranger to the spotlight. She was just 20 years old when she first represented New Zealand on the international netball stage, making her debut for the Silver Ferns in 2021.
[…] “I’m having a bit of a rough time and he listens and he always has kind of these Maori philosophies, which I really value because I understand them.”
After being dropped from the Silver Ferns squad in 2022, Metuarau was struggling to find her feet at the beginning of the 2023 netball season.
Rowe’s advice was simple – head home.
“I think there’s one whakatauki that probably encapsulates that. E hoki koe ou maunga ki a puri ai koe i nga hau o Tawhirimatea. But essentially it’s about going home and cleansing your soul, replenishing yourself so that you can come back and get in the game again, or get in the fight again.”
In other words, go home and rest up.
[…] “I think the beauty in this is that I’ve taught myself and I’ve learned from different people throughout this journey that I am capable and that I can pull myself out of situations that aren’t so comfortable.”
When you strip away the nonsense, all this says is that by identifying more as Maori, Maori sports stars are better able to deal with the psychological challenges that goes with playing sport at a high level. How exactly this works, I don’t know. Whether it works at all I don’t know, as there are no studies or real evidence of any kind mentioned.
What I fail to see is how there can be any connection with what a person is (race, ethnicity, gender) and their ability to deal with challenges, whether in sports or life in general.
And if you have a nagging feeling that underneath all this is racism dressed up in spiritual gobbledygook, you’re 100 per cent correct.