Kī-o-rahi inquiry
Ākonga researched multiple versions of pūrākau associated with kī-o-rahi, a traditional Māori game, for their learning. Guided by kaiako, ākonga compared sources and looked for common patterns across different explanations to deepen their understanding and bring the game to a wider audience.
Ākonga explored the origins, including different versions of pūrākau as told within different regions of Aotearoa. As their understanding and learning expanded, they confidently shared their experiences with others within their kura, hapori and at Te Tūkohu Ngāwhā | Mātauranga Māori Science and Design Fair.
Kupu Māori
Kēmu – game.
Kī-o-rahi – a traditional Māori game played between two teams on a circular playing area.
Pūrākau - traditional Māori narratives that carry and transmit knowledge, values, histories and understandings of the world.
Taputapu – equipment.
Questions for discussion
What does this approach suggest about how knowledge is constructed, shared and validated in the classroom?
How did exploring different versions or perspectives of the pūrākau support critical thinking and discussion?
How were students supported to treat pūrākau as knowledge rather than just a story?
Transcript
Sheryl Helleur
The kī-o-rahi rōpū – they were really passionate about kī-o-rahi because they love it and they live and breathe it. They helped organise a kī-o-rahi tournament in our area. They looked at the past taputapu of kī-o-rahi.
Skyla
We wanted to answer what it’s going to look like in the future, what it looked like in the past and we want to like make it global so other countries can learn it.
Jonty
I wanted to tell people that I love this sport and that there’s a kī-o-rahi tournament in New Zealand.
Sheryl Helleur
They did some research on the pūrākau that existed, and because there was some conflicting information between two of the pūrākau, they then wanted to make a cohesive understanding of their knowledge and also showcase what they’d learned and share it with others.
Jonty
We had to like see which pūrākau were the most common and which were just made up.
Skyla
We did lots of researching on kī-o-rahi, and it was pretty hard because it was different perspectives. We wanted to also include most of them so people could understand different perspectives.
Sheryl Helleur
If they find multiple conflicting opinions or information, what we’ve encouraged them to do is to just look at one resource at a time, one source at a time, look at it and then move on to the next, so they can remember some of the ideas and opinions within that first source and then they move on to the next. And then they compare, then move on to the next, so that they’re not thinking about all of them at once. And then at the end, they’re able to then form that strong opinion.
Jonty
So this was made back in the olden days and how it was played. There’s like heaps of perspectives about kī-o-rahi, and when we went to the science fair, if people know about this, they could have their own meaning of this sport.
Sheryl Helleur
And then they were really driven to think about how they could evolve the taputapu in the future and then how they could take kī-o-rahi worldwide.
Skyla
Back in the past, there was just sticks, rocks and harakeke balls. But now we have more plastic stuff. We have barrels, cones and pou.
Sheryl Helluer
They were all quite surprised, as well, with the past taputapu and what they were made of. The ball in the past was a really hard flax ball. And then, with the help of Whaea Kim, they made one of those balls.
Skyla
We made our own ball out of harakeke. So we weaved it. So you put hay in the middle, and then you wrap it and you weave it. It was definitely a lot different because we normally use a foam ball, but then we tried using harakeke ball. It feels different when you throw it and stuff.
Sheryl Helluer
And then they went on to looking at how could technology then evolve the kēmu and how could they create some taputapu using today’s technology to help the kēmu evolve.
Skyla
This sport is very special to us, and we want other people to know how special it is, so it can go worldwide. So then there can be different international tournaments around the world.
Acknowledgements
Sheryl Helleur, Te Ākau ki Pāpāmoa School
Jonty and Skyla, Te Ākau ki Pāpāmoa School
Te pūrākau ō kī-o-rahi animation, by Ada, Jonty, Kerenga, Kora, Hailo, Kupa-Tāne and Skyla. Courtesy of Te Ākau ki Pāpāmoa School
Students with kī-o-rahi project at Te Tūkohu Ngāwhā | Mātauranga Māori Science and Design Fair, Te Ākau ki Pāpāmoa School
Harakeke Kī, Sossos. CC BY-SA 3.0
