Horohopu Tournament to mark successful Museum education programme

WINNERS: Horohopu Tournament winners, Whangamarino School. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

After the shock closure of Rotorua Museum, which led to the loss of 20 Museum jobs, remaining staff rallied together to deliver a primary schools tournament playing the ancient Maori game, Horohopu.

Horohopu is played using poi toa, popularised around the world as fire poi but with a firm and large poi head and a meter long rope.

The object of the game is for the poi toa to be thrown from one player to the next and advance towards the scoring zone.

Rotorua Museum education coordinator Wharekahika Clarke said in a press statement "we had the tournament planned months ago, but when the Museum closed suddenly, we were left at a bit of a loss. But with a lot of work already put into it and strong interest from a number of schools, we thought let's do it."

Museum director Stewart Brown said the remaining staff had a strong feeling of togetherness and worked as a team to pull it off.

The Horohopu tournament was the culmination of a six month teaching programme based on traditional Maori games delivered by the education team at Rotorua Museum.

Mr Clarke taught that programme and said "Horohopu delivers so much for our kids; it enhances balance, speed, coordination, stamina, and encourages them to work as one, which we think is pretty cool. It's what we're doing here at the Museum."

Of the five participating schools, Whangamarino came out as the overall tournament winners. To celebrate the talent in all the teams, tournament stars from the various schools were chosen to form a new rep team. Their first challenge was to take on a mixed Museum, teachers and Rotorua Fire Brigade team.

"The rep team had the best of the best from all the schools and even though they had been playing all morning, they were on top form and out-played their competitors. The kids speed at picking up the game and becoming excellent players in a short period of time is awesome and come next year we hope to continue the traditional Māori games programme and Horohopu tournament" said Mr Clarke.