Hello and welcome to the witness history podcast with me, Alex Collins. I'm taking you back

to the summer of 1981 when a South African rugby tour of New Zealand was disrupted by

anti-racism campaigners. Maori activists saw it as an opportunity to get their message

across. There were protests on the streets, but someone to take more direct action to

disrupt games. I've been speaking to Rebecca Evans who managed to do just that.

We formed into a circle that was about 10 deep and then there was the instruction for those

on the outside of the circle to face outwards and link arms. I was continuously circling the

perimeter of the circle, instructing, calling out, keeping spirits up, telling people to chant

a mandela, a mandela, a mandela, a mandela, going away to stop the tour, shame, shame, shame,

kaffafaitonumato, which is a Maori on whatever's a victory, we shall not be defeated.

It's the 25th of July. Tens of thousands of rugby fans are looking forward to seeing the South

African national team. The spring box play Huakato, but the spectacle unfolding is very different.

Rebecca Evans and around 300 others who were protesting against apartheid and the

repression of marries in New Zealand have invaded the pitch at a packed out rugby park in Hamilton.

When I looked up and looked around at the crowd of some 35,000 people, there was a moment there

where I looked up and thought, oh my god, and a moment of utter terror.

She might have been fearful, but she and other protesters had come prepared.

I was wearing gumboots and a denim jeans and a yellow jacket. Some of us had padded up.

I just had a couple of all cricket leg pads that have been cut up and made into body pads

and a cricket helmet so that I could still see a number of people I know cut up

of phone books and padded those around their stomach and under their shoulders.

The rugby fans were very angry. There were even reports of a supporter who threatened to use a

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