The 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand was a very significant event to New Zealand. It still affects New Zealand society today. One of the biggest impacts it had on New Zealand was that not only did the tour bring about awareness to the discrimination happening under apartheid in South Africa, but it made us rethink about our own race relations. It increased awareness of how Maori people were being treated here in New Zealand. Some people related the struggles endured by black South Africans with racism here. For generations New Zealand prided itself on having the ‘finest race relations in the world’, but events during 1981 tested this claim. After all the disorder caused during the tour New Zealanders thought, have we actually solved our own
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Rugby has established itself not only as New Zealand’s most popular sport but as a critical element with traditional significance in our national identity. And rugby took a back seat in 1981, and the sport saw a decrease in popularity as players and supporters came to terms with the anarchy caused by the tour. The tour had damaged playing rugby for the sake of playing rugby and rugby games weren’t looked forwards to as much as in the past, instead the idea of a rugby game bought national shame. The tour also defined New Zealand’s evolution from ‘Britain of the South Seas’ to an independent …show more content…
Our status around the world was at its lowest during the tour, as many countries saw New Zealand as a very racist nation after it accepted the tour with South Africa and continued to have sports relations with white south africa, which showed us as agreeing or being ignorant towards apartheid. All other countries had stopped trading with South Africa because they followed a racial policy. But New Zealand accepted to tour with them, so our international status dropped to the lowest it had ever been in New Zealand history. But after violent protests were streamed live all over the world, other nations started to change their views of New Zealand. That not all of New Zealand agreed with the tour, and many were strongly against apartheid by participating in the protests. Which showed the black people in South Africa that people from as far a nation as New Zealand wanted to break the apartheid system just as much as they did. This was significant to New Zealanders because after all the riots and protests New Zealand's status in the world improved. Which gave the nation more respect from the world, because of the tour the status was brought down but if it weren't for the tour, New Zealand's status would never have increased so much and would have never showed the world how strongly New Zealand wishes to break racial policies. This tour showed many nations how strong New Zealand is when it comes to protests
Rugby has established itself not only as New Zealand’s most popular sport but as a critical element with traditional significance in our national identity. And rugby took a back seat in 1981, and the sport saw a decrease in popularity as players and supporters came to terms with the anarchy caused by the tour. The tour had damaged playing rugby for the sake of playing rugby and rugby games weren’t looked forwards to as much as in the past, instead the idea of a rugby game bought national shame. The tour also defined New Zealand’s evolution from ‘Britain of the South Seas’ to an independent …show more content…
Our status around the world was at its lowest during the tour, as many countries saw New Zealand as a very racist nation after it accepted the tour with South Africa and continued to have sports relations with white south africa, which showed us as agreeing or being ignorant towards apartheid. All other countries had stopped trading with South Africa because they followed a racial policy. But New Zealand accepted to tour with them, so our international status dropped to the lowest it had ever been in New Zealand history. But after violent protests were streamed live all over the world, other nations started to change their views of New Zealand. That not all of New Zealand agreed with the tour, and many were strongly against apartheid by participating in the protests. Which showed the black people in South Africa that people from as far a nation as New Zealand wanted to break the apartheid system just as much as they did. This was significant to New Zealanders because after all the riots and protests New Zealand's status in the world improved. Which gave the nation more respect from the world, because of the tour the status was brought down but if it weren't for the tour, New Zealand's status would never have increased so much and would have never showed the world how strongly New Zealand wishes to break racial policies. This tour showed many nations how strong New Zealand is when it comes to protests