March 28, 2024
National places on offer in Māori netball tourney
Waiariki Māori Netball is expecting more than 40 teams for the 35th Aotearoa Māori Netball national tournament in Rotorua this weekend.
The tournament was started in 1988 by Dame June Mariu during her term as president of the Māori Women’s Welfae League to promote healthy lifestyle and celebrate mana wāhine Māori.
Co-ordinator Maria Te Kanawa says the tournament includes grades from rangatahi to premier, with the stakes being particularly high for the rangatahi grade players.
“We select a national secondary school age team which gets to play international games. We’re hoping for two international tournaments this year. And that’s been going for a number of years and the Māori netball is a genuine pathway into high performance programmes at the mainstream level also,” she says