Tennis star facing sanction for party pu¯kana
A New Zealand Davis Cup tennis player has apologised after being filmed mocking Ma¯ ori culture.
Taranaki’s Ajeet Rai, 22, is to be sanctioned by Tennis New Zealand after videos of him performing pu¯ kana were posted on social media.
The videos appeared following celebrations after the America’s Cup win on Wednesday night, with Rai, New Zealand’s third ranked tennis player, and other party goers laughing as they did pu¯ kana and used a stick as a taiaha.
The party, on a $21 million boat owned by Zuru founder Nick Mowbray, included music by Belgian DJ Netsky, who posted the initial video of several people performing pu¯ kana.
He has since apologised and removed the video.
A definition on maoridictionary. co.nz, states pu¯ kana is ‘‘to stare wildly, dilate the eyes – done by both genders when performing haka and waiata to emphasise particular words and to add excitement to the performance’’.
Rai was not performing a haka or a waiata in the video, and there has been no explanation around the context of why he and others were performing pu¯ kana.
Rai could not be reached yesterday, but in a post on his Instagram account he apologised to everyone who was offended or hurt by his actions.
‘‘As a representative of New Zealand, I have always been proud to perform the Haka and show the world how incredible and beautiful our indigenous culture is.
‘‘Being a minority in New Zealand myself I should have known better and will be better moving forward.’’
Tennis New Zealand posted a message on Instagram saying it was ‘‘extremely disappointed’’. Yesterday
chief executive Julie Paterson said the statement was their official response.
‘‘Tennis NZ condemns all discriminatory behaviour, and we do not condone racial harassment in any way.
‘‘We will work with the athlete in question to ensure that not only does this situation not occur again, but that appropriate sanctions will be applied,’’ the statement read.
Shaneel Lal, cofounder of End Conversion Therapy NZ and antiracism advocate, saw the video on Netsky’s social media page, posted it to their page and sent a link to Tennis New Zealand.
Lal, of iTaukei (Fijian) and Girmit (Indian) descent, said they weren’t shocked when they first saw the video because this type of behaviour was so common.
‘‘I’ve got people yelling ‘stop cancel culture’ at me.
‘‘My response is this is not cancel culture this is consequence culture.’’
The people concerned chose to do what they did, they said.
‘‘Unfortunately, we had a person of colour, an ethnic minority participating.’’
And Lal said that the people had been drinking alcohol wasn’t an excuse.
‘‘Does drinking make you racist? If it does why do you drink? Either way it was a choice.’’
Lal said they had received many comments saying the incident wasn’t racist. But white people can’t be an authority on what is racist and what isn’t, they said.
On Thursday Ma¯ori Party coleader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer called the video ‘‘disgraceful’’.
‘‘They are, dare I say, stereotyping.’’
‘‘They are, dare I say, stereotyping.’’ Debbie Ngarewa-Packer Ma¯ori Party co-leader