With the school holidays right around the corner, parents might be rushing to find activities for their kids to indulge in and keep busy.
Sometimes the simplest of activities are the most memorable – think about the times we bonded over traditional games like Chapteh, Five Stones and Kutti Kutti, while learning a thing or two about Singapore’s history and culture.
Perhaps one of the countries that first made “edutainment” popular, the Kiwis have a plethora of childhood games designed to hone new skills and stimulate the mind. This holiday, introduce some traditional Māori games to your kids and teach them a thing or two about New Zealand culture.
Much of traditional Māori society is rooted in defending against warfare and weaponry. It was the ambition of every Māori warrior to be a brave battler for their families, and many young Kiwis experienced a warriors’ upbringing that conditioned them to be skilled in the strategies of battle.
Children’s games had strong ties to training warriors. Running, jumping, diving, stone throwing, climbing, boxing, wrestling and more elaborate stick-throwing and parrying games improved children’s motor skills for the inevitability of battle.
Here are four traditional Māori games that will teach your kids how to be brave little warriors at home!
Image source: Tourism New Zealand
1. Boost hand-eye coordination with Tītītōrea
Tītītōrea, played with wooden sticks called tītī, is a 2 stick game that dates back hundreds of years and is commonly played amongst the Kiwis even today.
A traditional game played by warriors to improve hand-eye coordination, the game involves two or more players passing the sticks according to rhythmic music.
Replace the traditional tītī with any stick of choice from home and put your own twist to the game by using your favourite playlist!
Learn how to play the game here.
Image source: Tourism New Zealand
2. Sharpen your memory with Tākaro ā-ringa games like Hei tama tū tama
Proving that you don’t need much to have fun, Tākaro ā-ringa are hand games that, like many early Kiwi games, was designed to encourage mental dexterity. Hei tama tū tama is a memory game that only requires your hands.
Here are the game rules:
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The defender begins the game by calling “Hei tama tū tama” and places their hands in one of the four positions described above.
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The challenger replies with “Hei tama tū tama” and does a different action.
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When one player catches the other doing the same action, that player calls “Hei tama tū tama rā!” and scores a point.
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The winner of the point then re-starts the set, saying “Tahi. Hei tama tū tama”, and play continues until a player is caught out again.
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Each time a player scores a point, they re-start the set by saying the number of points they now have followed by “Hei tama tū tama.”
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The game continues until one player reaches ten points – this completes the set.
Bring back some nostalgic school camp memories and challenge your memory to see how long you can play until someone forgets the game positions!
3. Train manual dexterity with Whai
The origin of Whai is accredited to Māui (Yes, the very same from Moana!), a demigod and hero of the Māori. In the series of string games, each player creates patterns using a loop of flax string held between their hands.
Similar to our local Cat’s Cradle game, players compete to create the most complex patterns in the most elegant way. Teach your children how to create unique patterns with just a piece of string, and sharpen their manual dexterity!
Start with a simple diamond and move on to a complex Parachute.
Image source: Tourism New Zealand
4. Improve speech with Tātai whetū
Kai are traditional Māori word games that take the form of tongue twisters (also known as Tātai whetū) that had to be memorised and recited word-perfect in one breath.
Encourage better enunciation by challenging your little ones to a famous tongue twister in our mother tongue languages!
English: She sells seashells by the seashore
Mandarin: 四 是 四 ， 十 是 十 ， 十 四 是 十 四 ， 四 十 是 四 十
Malay: Bila Billy balek ka Bali Billy boleh beli bola-bola
Tamil: Kizhatu kizhavan vyazhakizhamai vaazhai pazhathil vazhuki vizhunthan
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