Connecting through tākaro

Wiremu Sarich's passion for tākaro tākaro Play, game Maori | Noun stems from his carefree childhood in South Auckland and connection to te ao Māori through his whānau. Growing up, he would spend every weekend with his cousins. “Chucking a ball around”, he was in his happy place, and the best part was they were never short of a player.

“It wasn’t uncommon for me to hang out with 30, 50 or even 100 cousins all weekend. We always got together, and in a sense my child Māori worldview came from being raised by the wider whānau.”

Wiremu’s grandparents played an influential role in his life – he was grateful to be given the space to move around freely to explore his interests – which, unsurprisingly “always came down to play”.

Bringing his “life experience” into the play space made sense to Wiremu, and for more than a decade he’s been working with schools to help tākaro regain its prominent place in Aotearoa.

I love sharing things I’ve learned from te ao Māori and bringing them to these spaces. All of the games have some kind of whakapapa or history or story behind them, so it’s a great way to share narratives from within a tribe or an iwi to create connection to people and place.

One of the most popular games is  kī-o-rahi kī-o-rahi A traditional ball game - played with a small round flax ball called a kī. Maori | Noun , which is played by two teams using a woven flax ball on a round field.

“It’s a very unique game because one team scores tries at the same time as the opposite, defending team throw a ball at a rock or a bin in the middle of the field. So they’re accumulating points by achieving two completely different goals.”

Once players understand the game, then they begin to unlock the deeper levels of knowledge that underpin it, says Wiremu.

“Kī-o-rahi stems from the legend of Rahitutakahina and Tiarakurapakewai. So, learning the pūrākau goes hand in hand with learning the game, which is a tribute to our tīpuna tīpuna Ancestors, grandparents Maori | Noun and our culture.”

Wiremu says a lot of tamariki he works with are “hands-on” learners, and taking part in tākaro is a great way for them to build their knowledge base.