New haka

There’s a story running about the new haka by the All Blacks rugby side. The new haka supposedly includes reference to the other cultures of New Zealand. They may try it out against the Wallabies in the upcoming match. When will Australian players develop a war cry?

White women from Africa

There have been two films recently that celebrate the African value of forgiveness. The Interpreter with Nicole Kidman concerns a fictional African country Motabo and the culture of Koo who grant the family of a murder victim the opportunity to 'save' the life of the murderer. And In My Country, based on the book by Antjie Krog, features Juliet Binoche playing a journalist trying to teach an American about the African value of forgiveness in Ubuntu. Why is it that potentially liberating aspects of African culture are brought to our screens by these whiter than white heroines? Does this provide us with a door to Western intervention in Africa, seeing its core values represented best not by its black inhabitants but by its white women?

Going Balanda

L. Leichardt (1845) Journal Overland Expedition. They knew the white people of Victoria, and called them Balanda, which is nothing more than 'Hollanders'; a name used by the Malays, from whom they received it [Image of Dutch Masters exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria]