Maori rugby in 1920s France: sport, race, and Indigeneity

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    Abstract

    In 1924–25, a rugby team from New Zealand toured France. They won each of their games by more than twenty points, and the French press lauded them as invincible. Two years later, a group of Maori rugby players, traveled to Europe to test their mettle against similar competition. These rugby showcases elicited quite distinct responses among the French sporting public. The first Invincibles tour was viewed as an example of the British imperial settler-colonial world and the indigeneity of several players was ignored or downplayed. By contrast, the racial politics of the Maori All Blacks tour was impossible to overlook. Each tour taught the French different things about rugby—mostly technical lessons—but even those were shaped by the prevailing racial biases of the age.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)229-260
    Number of pages32
    JournalJournal of World History
    Volume35
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jun 2024

    Keywords

    • France
    • Maori
    • New Zealand
    • race
    • sovereignty
    • sport

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