Seeking true Kiwi style
The start of planning hearings for the 36th America’s Cup are a reminder there’s just over two years until the first start gun.
Much of the haggling over how the Auckland waterfront should be modified for the event will be about construction noise, access, event impact and so on.
However, a submission from Nga¯ti Wha¯tua Ora¯kei and supporting mana whenua is a reminder of the need to make the cup a truly Auckland and New Zealand event.
America’s Cups, and New Zealand’s participation in them, have had mixed success at embodying national and regional cultures, and really delivering for host communities. Bermuda 2017 looked slick on television but the strongest impression I had after being there for six weeks, was its disconnect with so much of the island’s population.
At the risk of being too simplistic, the cup divided the island like politics and wealth, an almost even split between the wealthier white, and less prosperous ‘‘black’’ Bermudians.
The cup village, a long drive or a ferry ride from downtown Hamilton, was a sterile, functional place that could have been an international sporting event anywhere. Many Bermudians I spoke to were more interested in money being spent on visibly woeful public infrastructure such as mouldy school buildings and patchy public transport.
The deckhands on the harbour ferry began sporting Team NZ merchandise, backing the only team dedicated to taking the event away from the island.
Team NZ’s own presence looked lean and monocultural, missing the Government backing which delivered a waka and crew to Valencia, Spain, and a kapa haka group and waka-shaped pavilion to San Francisco.
Bermuda desperately needed the odd haka when supporters needed something Kiwi.
The team’s victory was a phenomenal achievement for New Zealand but on the day, reflected only one of its peoples.
In 2013, San Franciscans appeared to connect only when a ‘‘home’’ victory suddenly became a chance for the ‘‘locals’’, Oracle Team USA.
In Valencia in 2007, a huge spend-up redeveloping the inlandfocused city’s harbour front appeared to bemuse many locals, for whom the waterfront hadn’t been part of their lives.
Auckland’s defences in 2000 and 2003 did manage to reflect Ma¯ori culture at key moments but for 2021 Nga¯ti Wha¯tua and other iwi want more. A permanent waterfront culture centre as a legacy is part of their pitch to the Environment Court.
The challenge for Team NZ’s event arm America’s Cup Events Ltd will be to create a festival that connects with and reflects all of Auckland’s communities.
It needs to be relevant and meaningful to young Pasifika people and Ma¯ori from south Auckland, with Asian communities in the southeast and central fringe suburbs.
All Aucklanders and New Zealanders
All Aucklanders and New Zealanders are chipping in to the tune of $212 million.
are chipping in to the tune of $212 million (and undoubtedly rising) for an event and waterfront upgrades far from their homes.
So while the next months might be about wharf extensions, traffic disruption and obscured views, the real challenge ahead is getting right the cultural DNA of America’s Cup 36.