Pakira Marae claims victory at Pa Wars
Waitahanui’s Pakira Marae claimed bragging rights at the Tuwharetoa Marae Sports Challenge 2017 after beating all comers.
Pakira was awarded 6730 points for their collective effort in the event beating out rivals, and long-time champions, Korohe Marae by more than 2000 points.
The team started the day strongly by winning the entrance parade competition, thanks to their construction of a walking taniwha to really make an impact on the crowd. Controlled by a team of puppeteers the taniwha turned heads and showed the Pakira was there to compete in all sports.
The two-day sporting event saw more than 6000 competitors take part in sporting and cultural events designed to bring hapu and iwi together through friendly competition.
Event organiser Trish Melon says the overall winner of the competition is not the team that picks up the most trophies, but the team who can bring the most competitors to each event.
The focus in on inclusiveness with additional points scored for including younger, and older, competitors.
‘‘Korohe had dominated in this for the last five years,’’ she said.
‘‘But many marae were gearing up to take them down this year, including Pakira.
‘‘The scoring system is good because it allows the larger marae to focus on bringing competitors but smaller marae can still gain bragging rights by claiming individual sports trophies.’’
Sports included touch rugby, volleyball, petanque, squash and iwi fit but more cultural events like chess, trivia and marae idol are also popular.
The euchre tournament is especially challenging with plenty of action, and possibly a few gripes about table talk, to be heard.
‘‘This year we also added a kapa-haka competition which should be great to see,’’ Melon said.
This year’s competition was one of the biggest in the event’s 14-year history in Turangi. ‘‘It’s great to see,’’ she said. ‘‘A lot of our competitors are from Australia and they are blocking out this time to come back and compete.
‘‘Australia could almost put in it’s own team.
‘‘It’s a great way for our iwi and hapu to reconnect.’’