Come Saturday night it’s doubtful any player will be more emotional than Harata Butler when she walks onto the field for the One New Zealand Warriors’ historic NRLW Indigenous Round clash against Canberra in Hamilton (Kirikiriroa).

Fiercely proud and passionate about Waikato and her Māori heritage, the 32-year-old had the honour of taking the One New Zealand Warriors onto Accor Stadium for last Saturday night’s encounter with Canterbury Bankstown.

That meant so much to her but it will cut even deeper this week when she heads onto FMG Stadium Waikato to celebrate the second week of the Indigenous Round – and more special still with the Warriors debuting Te Kahu Here, the club’s first-ever Indigenous Round jersey.

Butler was exceptional in two potent stints in last Saturday night’s club record 34-6 win over the Bulldogs, marking a deeply personal occasion by making more metres (143) and post-contact metres (68) than any other player on either side.

Later Butler’s feelings about the meaning of the round came to the fore at the media conference when she was what it would be to play in Hamilton in the first of three home games there.

Clearly emotional, Butler paused, her voice breaking a little, as she said: “That’s my home and it’s our home away from home.

“You can’t get any better than playing at Go Media but to bring it back home to the Waikato in Hamilton, in Kirikiriroa, and to be able to celebrate Indigenous Round as well … I don’t think I can find the words right now. If anything, it’s a feeling that I’m going to bottle up and keep for the rest of my life.”


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Sitting beside her in the conference head coach Ron Griffiths, a proud Gommeroi man who grew up on Awabakal and Wonnarua country in New South Wales, was full of empathy and admiration.

“Today (before playing the Bulldogs) we went down on the Parramatta River and had a bit of a yarn and H (Harata) said to me: ‘Do you want to talk about this area and what it means to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people?’,” he said.

“I said we could probably leave that to celebrate it next week when we’re over in New Zealand.

“She said no, so her leadership told me that I really needed to talk about what it means and then she spoke about our relationship – the Maori people with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – so it’s fitting to have her sitting alongside me because her leadership qualities in our team are second to none. We’re proud of what she has done.”








Butler followed up: “Going on the back of what coach said, Indigenous Round is something to embrace and (to) celebrate indigenous peoples of every whenua, every land, and out of respect, whether here in Australia or we’re back in Aotearoa, it’s just a respect thing to always acknowledge the people of the land.

“You stick to protocol and, hey, you’ll be looked after so on behalf of our tuakana I just want to thank your tupana, your indigenous people here, for looking after us on their whenua and I welcome them to our whenua next week.”