Two hundred Māori kaumātua will gather in Dunedin to take part in the inaugural Taurite Tū games in November.
Taurite Tū is a Māori strength and balance exercise programme for Māori over 50 that brings together physiotherapy and traditional Māori exercises.
The programme’s founder Katrina Pōtiki Bryant said she brought together her 30 years of experience as physiotherapist with research from her sister, dancer choreographer Lou Pōtiki Bryant, hapū relative Moana Wesley and others to create it.
It was about promoting an indigenous perspective of rehabilitation to bring it to the forefront of physiotherapy.
"We’ve been around for thousands of years and we had lots of rehabilitation techniques before physios came about."
The programme used techniques like waewae manu — patterns of bird feet movement that Māori had observed and were useful for falls prevention.
Taurite Tū had been researched in nine different regions across New Zealand and is delivered in 26 Māori organisations throughout Aotearoa. It is helping Māori kaumātua develop a relationship with ACC who fund it.
"It’s really given them a bit more hope for being able to navigate ACC," Ms Bryant said.
Some of the participants who had never done exercise before were taking part in the programme weekly.
Other positive outcomes included improved cardiorespiratory health and management of diabetes.
Ms Bryant said it was surreal to see the practice becoming national and now hosting the first national competition in Dunedin.
"We’re trying to keep it not too competitive, but good luck to us because the kaumātua are likely to get quite competitive."
For her, the biggest thing to come out of it was the connectedness the participants felt towards each other.
"It has become a wraparound care system for our kaumātua."
