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“The Least You Can Do is Start a Meeting with a Karakia”: Challenging the Culture Order in a New Zealand Cricket Organisation

Authors

• Stephanie Foxton, University of CanterburyFollow
• Tame PereFollow

Author ORCID Identifier

Stephanie Foxton:  https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6188-1188

Abstract

Previously, it was documented that cricket operated as a tool of colonisation, serving to spread British culture and values across the empire, reinforcing British identity and asserting cultural superiority (Baucom, 1999). In places like Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), cricket became a cornerstone of colonial social life, solidifying the dominance of British culture. Employing the Colonial Matrix of Power framework (Mignolo, 2007; Quijano, 2007) alongside the concept of the culture order (Holmes, 2018), this article aims to understand how Aotearoa NZ’s ever-evolving cricket culture sustains, and in some cases challenges, the dominance of Pākehā/British norms. By weaving these theoretical concepts together, we can acknowledge Aotearoa NZ’s colonial past whilst also recognising its bicultural present and delve deeper to understand how dominant power structures manifest in everyday interactions and how workplace interactions and practices can reproduce existing power hierarchies. Using Interactional Sociolinguistics as both a methodological and analytical approach and working in collaboration with a cricket organisation over a period of five months, analysis draws on a dataset comprised of ethnographic fieldnotes, workplace documents, and 40 hours of audio-visual recordings of naturally occurring workplace interactions (e.g., office small talk and team meetings) alongside follow-up interviews with participants. By applying a theory of coloniality to everyday workplace interactions between employees, we can consider the influence of continuing patterns of colonisation in Aotearoa NZ cricket and the extent to which these patterns continue to influence the cultural order. Findings suggest that the participating cricket organisation functions as a remnant of colonial hegemony, reproducing power structures that sustain the hierarchical positioning of Pākehā norms. Though there is evidence of change, most of the labour involved in challenging the dominant norms falls upon the shoulders of Māori cricketers and volunteers.

Recommended Citation

Foxton, Stephanie and Pere, Tame (2026) "“The Least You Can Do is Start a Meeting with a Karakia”: Challenging the Culture Order in a New Zealand Cricket Organisation," Journal of Global South Sport Studies: Vol. 1: Iss. 3, Article 2.
Available at: https://scholarworks.umb.edu/jgsss/vol1/iss3/2