Maori sports a Treaty issue

NZ Herald
February 02

A claim alleging that the Crown's actions have all but seen Maori sports disappear from the landscape has been accepted for inquiry by the Waitangi Tribunal.

Likening takaro Maori (sports) to taonga, cultural expert Harko Brown - who considers takaro Maori to be taonga - lodged the claim, saying that earlier Crown practices had systematically undermined Maori sport.

As a result iwi were prejudicially affected, which was a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi. Sports such as ki o rahi - a fast-paced contact ball sport - had been played in Italy and France, after being introduced by Maori soldiers during World War II.

A French tournament was planned for next year, and the game was catching on in the United States, Mr Brown said. While an estimated 30 schools played the game here, it has virtually no profile.

"The thing that brasses me off is that our taonga are used big time overseas, but we're not really using them here. It's a big void," he said.

Mr Brown, who is also a teacher, said the claim's remedy was simple: the tribunal should recommend that every school have a traditional games policy so that all Kiwi children could play. "This could happen at Sparc level. Spend a lousy couple of million or half a per cent of their budget on these games."

The purpose of some Maori games had been misconceived almost from the beginning of colonisation when missionaries mistook as a religious rite some games using central pou, or a pillar, being hit by a long poi.

"They thought it was some sort of religion around phallic symbols. They didn't like that."

The claim was about having space for things Maori in schools, he said. "Maori have focused on the whenua but some of this intrinsic stuff to who we are gets forgotten. It's about social justice really."