New Zealand Maori

Maori Games

A multitude of games were invented, developed, and hybridized in the centuries after Polynesians first settled New Zealand. Their volume can be appreciated from the renowned research of early anthropologist Elsdon Best, who recorded over 80 distinct pastimes from within the Tuhoe tribe alone. Best highlights popular pastimes as papa takaro (board games such as Mu Torere), kopapa (surfing), Mahi Ringaringa (hand games), Whai (string games), Poi (ball games), Pirori (hula hoops), Potaka (spinning tops), Haka (dance), and Teka (spear throwing).

Additionally Harko Brown lists ancient games that were played without gender bias such as wrestling [Page 421](nonoke mamau), athletics (including kaipara and wera-te-patu), canoe racing (waka hoehoe), stick play {mau rakau, poi rakau, korari, karo) ball play (involving poi, poi toa, and ki implements), stone stacking (toka-toka), problem-solving (tupea) and kite flying (manu tukutuku). The two Maori games best known internationally are ki-o-rahi, a ball game, which was introduced into 31,000 schools by U.S. curriculum directors in 2005, and the board game Mu Torere, which is utilized in education worldwide, for example in the Ph.D. mathematics program at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Games were practiced in paka whakawai (schools of arms) to transfer skills and techniques from playgrounds to battlefields, to promote learning in whare wananga (education centers), to problem-solve everyday situations, and to pass on values and intellect from one generation to the next. According to Burns, games were taught to tamariki (children) from an early age to develop their individuality and to implant in them desirable qualities. Game playing was encouraged as a freedom of expression and was never restricted to a time or place. Best supports the idea that game playing was openly fostered at all times, even during the most sacred of rituals, such as tangihanga (funerals). Annually, during Te Tau Hou (The Maori New Year), the independent tribes all over New Zealand would congregate for important large-scale festivals. These celebrations, called Matariki, were exciting times for ancient tribespeople to display their competitive skills and abilities over several fervent weeks of feasting, dancing, and game playing. It was a time of rangi marie (peace), when intertribal warfare ceased.

The Maori populations increased steadily to some 200,000 by the time Captain James Cook first visited New Zealand shores in 1769. Early settlers regarded Maori as an advanced civilization. Their high intellect and physical prowess were associated with the way they utilized cultural games. After 1800, European numbers increased markedly, and the mounting impacts of colonization resulted in the decimation of Maori populations. These high death rates combined with sup-pressive social policies effectively blunted traditional game-playing adhérences. By 1890, Ian Pool claims the Maori population had plummeted to just 36,000, and traditional games were highly stigmatized and rarely played, surviving only tenuously in their marae (traditional homeland) enclaves.

...