Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Protests a turning point in the history of New Zealand. In Tri-Nations action this weekend, South Africa visits New Zealand. NZH and TVNZ look back 25 years when the 1981 Springboks toured NZ. The ensuing public protests polarised the New Zealand population as no other issue has in that nation's history. In scenes reminiscent of South Africa itself, protesters clashed with police and enraged rugby fans; rugby grounds resembled war zones, barbwired and barricaded. During the final test match at Eden Park, a low-flying light plane disrupted the match by dropping flour-bombs on the pitch. One of the flour bombs brained an All Black on the head. The pilot served six months' jail for the stunt. From Robben Island prison, Nelson Mandela said "the sun shone through the dark corridors of the cells" when he heard about the protests. TVNZ has a 24-minute documentary broken into three separate small javascript video clips of the tour (each about 8-minutes long; the "flour bombing" is on the 3rd clip.) Definitely worth a look!
