All Black Haka in the clear just in time for Rugby World cup - Rugby Union
Even though the Haka is trademarked by Ngati Toa, the World Cup favourite All Blacks will carry on performing the famous Ka Mate Haka. The approval was given in a back door deal that will be announced today.
After consistent talks for months, the North Island iwi and the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) will be penning a memorandum of agreement today. The deal will recognize the right of All Blacks team to perform Haka with free will.
The money issue has not been disclosed as of yet and NZRU has hinted that there has been no exchange of money at all. The fact that Ngati Toa would be getting any kind of cut from the revenues that will generated from the Haka, is also undisclosed.
The Ka Mate haka performance means there is an assured jam packed stadium, where ever the All Blacks team will be playing and it can be assured that there is a huge amount of money involved. The game doesn’t remain just a normal rugby clash if the Haka is
involved, as the tickets are sold faster.
Steve Tew, the Chief Executive of NZRU, affirmed his backing for the All Blacks and their use of the traditional war dance. He said, “It gives the NZRU some confidence concerning its enduring use of Ka Mate, while at the same time providing some guarantees
to Ngati Toa that use of the Haka will be reverent.”
He added, “It's gratifying to get to this high point with Ngati Toa and to formalize our relationship.”
An application to trademark was filed by Ngati Toa for the four key phrases of the Haka in the previous year. Prior to this, an application was already rejected which had the claim of controlling the complete rights of the complete Ka Mate text.
There were more applications filed in with the rugby union against the Ngati Toa’s application. Rugby union has been reviewing all of them, trying to settle the issue with an agreement. It has filed a few documents of probable resistance to the Intellectual
Property Office.
Taku Parai and the Ngati Toa kuamatua confirmed that the informal agreement has been converted into a formal deal. The informal agreement had been made a while ago and wasn’t thought to be sufficient, as the World Cup approached.
Parai said, “We've always acknowledged the All Blacks performing Ka Mate, so this is just putting an official acceptance in place. It actually has always been about guaranteeing a definite level of safeguard of the Haka from misappropriation; from the misuse
of it.”
Though, Pairi believes that All Blacks don’t misuse the Haka and perform it in a respectable way.
The issue has been solved at a good time, when the NZRU is taking care of World Cup preparations and the All Blacks were looking forward to the Tri Nations. The NZRU would be relieved with this development as there are so many other aspects to look after.
The World Cup, the Tri Nations and on top of all that, the aftermath of recent Christchurch earthquake, all of these factors have to be taken care of thoroughly.
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