V8 anthem idea ditched

Pukekohe’s farewell to the Aussie V8s last Sunday couldn’t have gone much better after Shane van Gisbergen’s thrilling lastgasp win and podium presentation in front of an ecstatic crowd on the hill. But it was very nearly a groundbreaking race for a very different reason – and one that would have started Te Wiki o te Reo Mā ori / Mā ori Language Week in real style. Singer Caitlin Smith kicked off proceedings by singing both the Aussie and New Zealand anthems on the grid, and she’d spent the preceding days learning the indigenous version of Advance Australia Fair to match the bilingual God of Nations only to have her idea stymied by Supercars organisers. Having

Advance Australia Fair sung in the indigenous dialects as well as English isn’t new – the Wallabies first used the Eora dialect at a rugby test in 2020 and earlier this year sang both in English and Yugambeh before their match against England in Brisbane – but wasn’t deemed necessary in Pukekohe. ‘‘All my waking energy had been focused on memorising the Aboriginal lyrics 2 Advance Australia Fair in the Eora dialect,’’ Smith told her fans on social media. ‘‘Sadly they’ve expressly requested English only.’’