The winter of 1981 saw the Springboks rugby team tour New Zealand, and Kiwis divided. Recent Maori attempts to reclaim ownership of government requisitioned land at Bastion Point had focused attention on race relations. The 56-day visit of a rugby team from South Africa during the apartheid regime not only shaped New Zealand history but also a social consciousness that continues to reverberate today.
Trevor Reekie talks to Simon Grigg from Propeller Records and Will 'llolahia, former Polynesian Panther and the original manager of Herbs about why a sporting event became the source of civil unrest and cultural change in Aotearoa, and how music fitted in.
