New Zealand – two islands full of sheep, mountains, kiwi birds and fruits, hobbits, and especially rugby. The All-Blacks’ legendary Haka chant strikes fear and wonder into opponents and crowds all over the world. Indeed, the culture of rugby in New Zealand may stem from well beyond when the first British colonists landed on the islands; this week, we’re going to look at a long-running Maori game known as ki-o-rahi. 

Before the colonization of New Zealand in the 19th century, the Maori peoples had a tradition of numerous ball games that they brought with them from their initial settlement on the islands, believed to be sometime between 1250-1300. However, with the advent of British settlers (and much missionary activity as well), rugby was brought forth sometime in the 1870s as part of a why of enhancing cultural presence on the islands. The Maori people took immediately to the game, and one of the first international teams representing New Zealand (touring England, Ireland, and Australia in 1888) was comprised solely from native players. Even with the popularity of rugby, which continues to this very day in New Zealand, a resurgence in traditional Maori culture has seen the rebirth of ki-o-rahi as a sport played all across the country.

Ki-o-rahi is said to be a game that is reminiscent of the story of Rahitutakahina and the daring rescue of his wife, Tiarakurapakewai. It’s played in several forms – either full-contact, touch, or with flags (akin to flag football) as a lower-contact version common in schools. Two teams of seven play on a circular field, with a marker in the middle of the smallest circular zone, as well as end markers. Both men and women alike play this game, with non-contact versions often having mixed-gender teams.

The game is fairly straightforward to understand, but there’s a few rules about boundaries and crossing over that are confusing as hell, at least to me, personally. Here’s a diagram of the field layout I found, as well as a YouTube video that explains the rules in a very brief manner, much better than I could hope to in this case.

Now, with this in mind, it’s important to note that the version demonstrated in the video above does use flags and is thus not full contact – it’s known as the “ripper version”. Playing this sport in a full-contact manner (called “nonoke”) seems fun as hell, quite honestly. Here’s an example of a nonoke version of the game from the 2011 national final between Whanganui and Te Arawa. Plus the music seems kinda groovy too.

Speed is an incredibly important part of this game besides strength, too – you can clearly see why a rugby culture in New Zealand evolved out of this sport. Personally, I’d have loved to see Jonah Lomu or some other legendary All-Blacks give this a go – I think it would have been incredible to watch.

Interestingly enough, McDonald’s selected ki-o-rahi as one of 15 international games to teach to seven million American schoolchildren back in 2005; while there’s not much of an international presence yet with the sport, people of France and Italy recall the Maori battalions playing ki-o-rahi while serving in World War II, and a touring team visited Europe in 2010. Hopefully outreach can grow in order to build the sport’s popularity and look for ways to attract athletes from around the world!

Finally, I like how some folks, while serious about the competition aspect of the sport, are still laid-back enough as to not wear shoes while playing. This is a fun short little video of a nonoke test match from the Bay of Islands (near the tip of the North Island) with a lot of folks going barefoot as they play. That’s the good shit right there. I’d be game to have a beer with these folks for sure.