Almost half of New Zealand pro rugby players are Māori or Pasifika, so alarm bells should have rung at reports of Pacific men committing suicide.
Pacific Island/Māori men make up almost half of the professional rugby players in New Zealand.
In the NRL, the figure is 42 per cent. So when reports of young Pacific men committing suicide started to emerge in recent years it should have been an existential crisis for the codes themselves.
Ma’a Nonu is probably the greatest No 12 in All Blacks history but it took an age before people considered him to be more than a ‘physical’ player.
That it wasn’t shows young Pacific Island men are still “outsiders” rather than “insiders” in the sports and their mental health challenges are poorly understood.
In the NRL, the figure is 42 per cent. So when reports of young Pacific men committing suicide started to emerge in recent years it should have been an existential crisis for the codes themselves.
Ma’a Nonu is probably the greatest No 12 in All Blacks history but it took an age before people considered him to be more than a ‘physical’ player.
That it wasn’t shows young Pacific Island men are still “outsiders” rather than “insiders” in the sports and their mental health challenges are poorly understood.
But Auckland University academics Caleb Marsters and Dr Jermaima Tiatia-Seath are changing that, with Marsters leading a study into young Pacific Island players and mental health.
Their findings outline how Pacific cultures view mental wellbeing in a fundamentally different way to the “individualistic” European/Western model, and also put context around the current tensions between religion as sport as evidenced by the Israel Folau controversy.
And they also indicate that one of the stresses that Pacific Island men must deal with is living up to the stereotype of being physically dominant, the enforcer: in essence, of being the Jake the Muss.
“What comes to mind is that Once Were Warriors movie,” Dr Tiatia-Seath tells Stuff. “Along with that comes aggression, standover tactics, physical dominance . . . and so you can imagine that can be transferred out on the field.”
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Marsters interviewed 20 Pacific men from ages 16-24 for the study. Thirteen played rugby and seven played league, and the majority were either semi-professional, fully contracted or in development teams.
Leveraging his personal and sporting networks, trust was a key factor in Marsters getting them to open up. Once that was established, he found them forthcoming about their lives.
The interview subjects emphasised how they valued a holistic approach to mental health.
One typical response was: “An example is when things are good with family, your girlfriend, you’re good with God, content, studies are going well, and you’re playing well. To me that’s positive mental wellbeing.”
Former All Blacks No 6 Jerome Kaino never seemed particularly at ease with the ‘enforcer’ tag others gave to him.
When just one of these areas was ‘off’, the athlete’s entire sense of happiness suffered.
But they also carried the burden of having to be the ‘beast’ or ‘warrior’ on the playing field, the player who sees asking for help as a “weakness”.
“You’re almost living double or multiple lives,” Dr Tiatia-Seath says. “For those players in the public eye they have to carry that persona, which is untruthful for most part.
“It’s not entirely who we are. People tend to just focus on the physical aspect, which does bring a lot of discomfort to our population, because there is more to our men and players than just that.”
Cultural icons such as ‘Jake The Muss’ have reinforced the idea that Pacific Island/Maori men are defined by their physical traits.
Cultural icons such as ‘Jake The Muss’ have reinforced the idea that Pacific Island/Maori men are defined by their physical traits.
It was one reason, she says, why players such as former All Black Jerome Kaino struggled with the “enforcer” tag. On the paddock he was expected to be the hardest man on the planet but off it the label didn’t sit comfortably with him.
Marsters and Dr Tiatia-Seath acknowledged that physical strength Pacific Island players brought was something of a double-edged sword.
On the one hand young Pacific Island men had traits coveted by coaches, which meant they could attain sporting success and bring pride and socio-economic benefits to their families.
On the other hand, when people focused on these traits to the exclusion of their other attributes it could make young Pacific men less likely to ask for help when they are struggling and perpetuate the old myths about Pacific players being unsuited to to decision-making positions.
Players such as Richie Mo’unga at the Crusaders and the Highlanders’ Josh Ioane are killing off the myth that Pacific players can’t be the best decision makers.
“It’s changing ever so slightly,” Dr Tiatia-Seath says. “In Super Rugby we’re seeing a browning of first-fives … but still they aren’t getting as much game time as non-Pacific first-fives.
“[Then] You have a player like Ardie Savea. If he wasn’t Pacific he’d be getting a lot more exposure and yet I rate him as one of the country’s best. And the first thing that people hone in on is his size.”
Marsters also says there is a lag between how the Pacific Island community sees itself and how it is perceived by rugby and rugby league talent scouts.
“The talent we’re seeing a lot of these clubs trying to recruit is those positions, the explosive wingers, the big props or the forwards but it’s changing.
Dr Jemaima Tiatia-Seath, the co-head of the School of Maori Studies and Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland.
“Within our own communities these views have been changed for a while now. We know we can play other positions and contribute differently to society but on the outside, the big recruitment that is going on in our communities is still largely looking for those features – big and strong.
“It’s still more a positive than a negative but it can place limiting stereotypes on our young men.”
Understanding the triggers for mental health issues for young Pacific men could hardly be more urgent.
Marsters says both Pacific males and Pacific youth experience higher rates of mental illness and are less likely to access mental health services or ask for help than other New Zealand population groups.
Marsters says New Zealand sports organisations were now doing a better job of accommodating Pacific cultures but there was still a way to go.
“What we’re seeing now is the wake-up call,” he says. “The reality is Pacific athletes do come from a cultural and social background that is quite different to those running the sport.”
For Tiatia-Seath, the key to better mental health for young Pacific men was changing the narrative so that the ‘warrior’ tag had a broader meaning.
“We’d like to change that narrative so that it isn’t being about a dominator physically, rather we see a warrior mentality with someone who has thrived in the face of adversity and is resilient and is able to perform at a high level in among all the pressures external to the code – familial obligations, church obligations, and high family expectations.”