Te Arawa Rangatahi Games 2014

On April 5th, Te Arawa rangatahi and their kaitautoko gathered at Tawharakurupeti for the 2014 Te Arawa Rangatahi Games.

 

The theme of principle based scoring from the Te Arawa Games in Maketu was continued as the different hapu, marae and iwi competed in Poitukohu (basketball) and Ki O Rahi.

 

With poitukohu being a non-traditional, non-Maori sport it was interesting to see how the scoring system would work and how the rangatahi would take to it as most rangatahi had played basketball and scored points by getting the ball through the hoop.  Therefore, poitukohu took on a 'streetball' type of feel and players were able to call their own fouls, handovers and keep tally of their baskets made.

 

After the first few minutes, the players forgot about who scored the most baskets and focused more on including their team mates in the game, encouraging others and even give the other team some hints and tips!  Not to mention the amount of whanau who came to cheer their tamariki and moko and everyone else too.  Tau ke!

 

Poitukohu kept our rangatahi busy until lunch time before they head off to the 'Tellytubbie' hills to play Ki O Rahi.  The weather out here was beautiful! Tamanuitera burning high in the sky, Tawhirimatea still and quiet and wanting to hang around to watch the action.

Ki O Rahi was the main attraction for the day - probably because rangatahi can play basketball whenever they like or at school so they relish any opportunity to be able to play the game our tupuna played.

 

Tamanuitera was making his presence felt as the day got hotter and hotter as the games went on. As with the basketball, the conventional way of scoring (hitting the tupu, touching the pou and running the Ki into pawero) became a secondary motivation behind the primary motivation of including the whole team (whanaungatanga), encouraging their team mates as well as the other team (manaakitanga), voluntarily handing the ball over if they committed a penalty (rangatiratanga) and identifying how their marae or hapu connected them to the area they were in (Tawharakurupeti, Te Roro o Te Rangi) which was awesome to hear and see.

 

The day ended with each marae, hapu or iwi receiving a rakau that best depicted how they conducted themselves throughout the day and reinforcing their connection and likeness to Tane Mahuta.  

 

Tumahaurangi showed their continued commitment to the principles and values as an ideal way for Te Arawa to behave and were thus named Toa for the 2014 Rangatahi Games, kai te mihi ki a koutou, me ki ki a tatou katoa i kawea e te Rehia i taua ra!

 

Na Hana Tapiata i tuhi

 

 

Events

Rangatahi

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