He Oranga Poutama: Ngā Taonga Tākaro

Ngā Taonga Tākaro is about celebrating the art of fun and entertainment as described within Te Whare Tapere - The House of Entertainment.  Within this arena, traditional Māori games and past-times including ball games, hand and memory games and story telling would be celebrated together.

 

These occasions enabled individuals and groups to develop cognitive, physical, emotional and spiritual functions in a fun and enjoyable environment.  

 

Traditional Māori games have a way of telling a story, a story of our tupuna, of our atua, a lesson to be learnt, a skill to be acquired and much more.  Ngā Taonga Tākaro, the games and activities we use cannot live in isolation, they require a certain amount of cultural knowledge in order to bind the spiritual and cultural world to the physical.  Whakapapa enables this partnership to exist; understanding the legend to a game provides a cultural purpose for participating, and to some extent defines a model of behaviour within it.  Modern sport lacks the cultural nuances that we require as Māori to function to a high level.  Developing traditional Maori games and infusing whakapapa to modern day sport, I hope to broaden our understanding of sport and recreation as Māori.

 

He Kinaki Korero