Bringing Te Reo Māori to Life Through Play
By:
Matt Pryor
In 2018, three friends created a game to celebrate te reo Māori. By 2020, Kura Rēhia was born, sharing the joy of learning te reo through play. Today, it continues to connect communities and inspire fun.
Rosie Remmerswaal (Tangata Tiriti) and Āio Mataira-Wharerarauwhe (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu, Raukawa), are the creators of Kura Rēhia and are featured in this month's issue of the Air New Zealand Kia Ora Magazine. We've republished the kōrero below for you to read if you haven't managed to spot it in print.
When did you launch?
Our journey began in 2018 as three friends sat around a fire with a desire to have fun with te reo Māori, so we created the game Kaupapa for ourselves. When we realised how much our community wanted to play too, we collaborated with Aroha Tamihana and Hēmi Kelly, and Kura Rēhia was born in 2020.
We’re inspired by the whakataukī “Kia kawea tātou e te Rēhia – Let us be taken by the spirit of play” and see the huge potential of games to spark learning and connection.
Achievements and challenges?
A highlight was our launch event Te Reo o te Rēhia at Umupuia marae, down the road from our flat, where the game began. It was a full-day celebration of Māori games and pastimes with workshops led by amazing experts in the field and attended by more than 200 people. Since then, over 6,500 Kaupapa games have found homes. It’s heartwarming to hear stories of people using the games to infuse joy into learning of reclaiming te reo.
A significant challenge was designing Kaupapa to be accessible for beginners while still engaging for fluent speakers so that a group with a range of reo levels can play together. An unexpected lesson is learning to look ahead and keep up with demand – so we don’t sell out before Christmas again.
Future plans?
We are developing expansion packs for Kaupapa and a game called Tipu in collaboration with illustrator Sara Moana, perfect for new learners. Our aim is for Aotearoa to experience te reo as central to how we have fun together as whānau and friends.
How do connections like the Whāriki Māori Business Network help?
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata – It is the people.” Magic happens when people get together. A single conversation can spark a meaningful collaboration.