Thursday, July 24, 2008 Bledisloe rivals united for Marae Sydney’s substantial and growing population of New Zealanders has teamed up with the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union to build Australia’s first traditional Maori cultural precinct in the heart of the city’s suburbs. The union and the Maori community will launch an appeal during the Bledisloe Cup on Saturday night to ultimately raise more than $2 million to go towards purchasing a parcel of land in Sydney’s west to house the Marae. Around 800 rugby and NZ enthusiasts will tuck in for a feast at the Sydney Marae Appeal dinner at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre, including former Wallaby great Gary Ella, league immortal Artie Beetson, former All Blacks captain Wayne Shelford and fellow ex-All Blacks Arthur Stone, Arran Pene, Stuart Forster and Norm Hewitt. NZ league greats Tawera Nikau, Kevin Tamati and Olsen Filipaina, along with seven-times world champion softballer Chubb Tangaroa, will also be there supporting the appeal. The CFMEU has a large number of Maori members, but the Marae – a cultural precinct built around Maori culture that acts as a meeting place – will be for all of the 81,000 New Zealanders living in Sydney. “Our people – Maori and other New Zealanders – have a close bond with this land and many of us have crossed the Tasman to settle here for good,” CFMEU organiser Steve Keenan said. “A Marae in Sydney will strengthen those ties between Australia and New Zealand and provide a physical symbol of that bond, as well as a cultural gathering place for everyone who calls Australia home. “It is a place where we mourn our dead and a place where we debate the issues of our time. It also opens the door to the wider community to be involved in the Maori culture.”