New Zealand Herald: Maori groups are trying to trademark the haka -- the dance the New Zealand national rugby union team does before each match. The All Blacks have the right to use the haka, but the Maori's don't want other people using it commercially. They're effectively trying to trademark culture, which may be the best defence of indigenous people who don't want their culture used for commercial purposes to make someone else rich...although the Maoris are prepared to license the haka for appropriate uses.
"One "positive step" was negotiations with an international computer game manufacturer to use the haka in a new PlayStation rugby game in exchange for providing iwi scholarships. But other unapproved commercial uses, such as haka performances by strippers at the White House in Auckland, have been described by angry iwi representatives as "totally inappropriate".
(By the way, iwi is "The traditional Māori tribal hierarchy and social order made up of hapu (kin groups) and whanau (family groups) having a founding ancestor and territorial (tribal) authorities.")
Comments