Attitude of Competitors

Te Ao Hou, December 1965, Page 47

Attitude of Competitors The final point concerns the attitude of competitors towards competitions. Too often the results are treated as tests of personal prestige by those who lead and teach, and this causes some distressing examples of bad sportsmanship by those who lose. Some competitions, which provide valuable monetary prizes, engender a do-or-die, far from friendly attitude on the part of some competitors. One wonders if there is not good reason to cut out these monetary prizes and instead to divide up the money amongst all the teams in proportion to the distance they have had to travel. This would remove any element of greed and would provide an incentive for teams to travel to competitions even though their chances of winning might be slim. I have tried to be provocative and I hope that other judges and prospective competitors might write to ‘Te Ao Hou’ with their thoughts on this most important aspect of modern Maori culture. If we are to use competitions as a method of raising our level of performance, we should perhaps try and establish some sort of standard competition procedure. Many interested people feel that it would fulfil a long-felt want if Adult Education or some similar body could sponsor a weekend seminar to discuss and give guidance on judging standards, and to air views on such controversial matters as stage approach, costuming, individual or group chants after whaikorero. Judges, teachers, leaders and competitors would benefit greatly from such a meeting of minds. Alan Armstrong is Te Ao Hou's record critic, and the author of ‘Maori Games and Hakas’ and (with Reupena Ngata) ‘Maori Action Songs’. He is club captain of the Ngati Poneke Young Maori Club.