Ki-o-Rahi Waitangi Bowl 2012

Ngati Hine Health and Waitangi National Trust will be hosting the 2012 Waitangi Bowl – New Zealand’s premiere mixed Ki-o-Rahi tournament. For more information about the tournament, how to apply as a team and to read the rules of the game, download the Waitangi Bowl document (PDF 550Kb).

This national competition for a game older than rugby will take place on the Waitangi sports field at 9am on Saturday 4th February.  The ball game ki-o-rahi is now played by millions of school children through the USA, and many thousands throughout France and  Italy, where it was introduced by the Maori Battalion during World War 2.  Today it thrives throughout its homeland with some 50,000 players.  Two years ago the inaugural Waitangi Bowl trophy marked the start of a move to national championships.

Waitangi Treaty Grounds deputy CEO Andy Larsen hopes that including a national championship during the Waitangi Day "season" of celebrations will shine a brighter spotlight on the game. "It pre-dates rugby, the game upon which the name of the Treaty Grounds’ founder Lord Bledisloe is indelibly engraved.  Sport and leisure were key elements in the deed of trust through which Bledisloe gifted Waitangi to the nation, so it is fitting to host the Waitangi Bowl here as a national, annual trophy. Ki-o-rahi has also turned lives around and provided a focus and an alternative for motivating youth in rural areas."