Faculty of Native Studies

Deconstruction does not say there is no subject, there is no truth, there is no history. It simply questions the privileging of identity so that someone is believed to have the truth. It is not the exposure of error. It is constantly and persistently looking into how truths are produced. (Spivak 1988, 28) This paper starts from the simple question of what knowledge is produced about M ori men and why. In Nietzschean style, I am less concerned with the misrepresentation of truths than with how such truths have come to be privileged. I do not argue that the tropes such as the M ori sportsman, manual laborer, violent criminal, or especially the M ori patriarch, are "false," for indeed there are many M ori men who embody these categorizations. 1 To propose such tropes are false would suggest that other forms of M ori masculinity are "truer," "more authentic" embodiments. Alternatively, I am stimulated to uncloak the processes that produce M ori masculine subjectivities. Specifically, this article deconstructs the invention, authentication, and re-authentication of "traditional" M ori patriarchy. Here, "invention" refers to the creation of a colonial hybrid. This is not to say, however, that colonization provided the environment for the genesis of M ori patriarchy, for it is probable that modes of M ori patriarchy existed prior to colonization (ie, patriarchy as constructed by M ori tribal epistemologies, focused on notions such as whakapapa [genealogy] and mana [power/prestige/respect]).

This paper provides the socio-historical background to a research project which includes the investigation of the relationship between school rugby culture, ethnicity and attitudes towards the reporting of a concussion. It examines rugby culture in relation to the reporting of concussion by senior secondary school rugby players. The concept of 'Rugby culture' in the present research was defined as "the importance the school, staff, pupils and parents place on success in rugby" and is explored in-depth with respect to cultural, ethnic and historical parameters. In particular, the paper examines the inter-relationship of Māori culture and rugby culture in general.