Before 1981, the All Blacks and Springboks had participated in a number of rugby tours, beginning in 1921. However, the apartheid regime caused problems, given that rugby was a sport with large numbers of Maori players. In the 1921 tour, one of the games played by the Springboks was in Napier against the New Zealand Maori team. A South African journalist called Charles Blackett sent a cable back to his country describing the shock at which he viewed Pakeha cheering on Maori:
"Bad enough having to play a team officially designated New Zealand Natives, but the spectacle of thousands of Europeans frantically cheering on a band of coloured men to defeat members of their own race was too much for the Springboks, who were frankly disgusted."
Not only was inviting South Africa to tour New Zealand problematic, but touring South Africa, with its extreme culture of segregation, threw up even more barriers to Maori players playing in the All Blacks. The NZRFU (New Zealand Rugby Football Union) did not select Maori players for South African tours until 1970, believing this to be the correct way of dealing with racial tension between the cultures. However, before the 1960 tour of South Africa, 150,000 New Zealanders signed a petition against sending a racially selected team, and the protest catch-cry was “No Maoris – No Tour.” The 1960 tour went ahead, but New Zealand’s ideals of racial equality were made a reality when the 1967 tour to South Africa was cancelled. The All Blacks toured the country in 1970 with a multiracial team, although only because the South African government labeled the Maori players ‘honorary whites,’ which clearly demonstrated that racist attitudes in the country had not softened. For some people, this was enough to spark major protest. Those that opposed contact with South Africa argued that in no way should Maori players be forced to have to ‘change the colour of their skin’ to play against another country, and that by continuing the tours New Zealand was condoning apartheid. Moreover, by allowing Māori players to be treated in this way, we were allowing South African racial attitudes to infect our own society.
Having already had calls to stop tours to South Africa was a cause of the 1981 tour protests, simply because there was a general feeling that apartheid was not something that New Zealand wanted to be a part of. This feeling had begun to take form earlier in the 20th century and grew stronger over the course of the 1900s, as New Zealanders began to see that race relations in their country as well as others, needed work. With each tour and tour cancellation the protests became stronger, before coming to a head in the 1981 tour.
"Bad enough having to play a team officially designated New Zealand Natives, but the spectacle of thousands of Europeans frantically cheering on a band of coloured men to defeat members of their own race was too much for the Springboks, who were frankly disgusted."
Not only was inviting South Africa to tour New Zealand problematic, but touring South Africa, with its extreme culture of segregation, threw up even more barriers to Maori players playing in the All Blacks. The NZRFU (New Zealand Rugby Football Union) did not select Maori players for South African tours until 1970, believing this to be the correct way of dealing with racial tension between the cultures. However, before the 1960 tour of South Africa, 150,000 New Zealanders signed a petition against sending a racially selected team, and the protest catch-cry was “No Maoris – No Tour.” The 1960 tour went ahead, but New Zealand’s ideals of racial equality were made a reality when the 1967 tour to South Africa was cancelled. The All Blacks toured the country in 1970 with a multiracial team, although only because the South African government labeled the Maori players ‘honorary whites,’ which clearly demonstrated that racist attitudes in the country had not softened. For some people, this was enough to spark major protest. Those that opposed contact with South Africa argued that in no way should Maori players be forced to have to ‘change the colour of their skin’ to play against another country, and that by continuing the tours New Zealand was condoning apartheid. Moreover, by allowing Māori players to be treated in this way, we were allowing South African racial attitudes to infect our own society.
Having already had calls to stop tours to South Africa was a cause of the 1981 tour protests, simply because there was a general feeling that apartheid was not something that New Zealand wanted to be a part of. This feeling had begun to take form earlier in the 20th century and grew stronger over the course of the 1900s, as New Zealanders began to see that race relations in their country as well as others, needed work. With each tour and tour cancellation the protests became stronger, before coming to a head in the 1981 tour.