July 19, 2022
Past play time for Kerikeri māra hūpara
A Kerikeri group is looking to the area’s rich past for inspiration for a new playground.
The māra hūpara being built at the Kerikeri sports complex with help from Health Families Far North will include a flying fox, swings, slides and more.
Project lead Angela Barker says it will also include spaces for traditional Māori games which connect people to the purakau of mana whenua Ngāti Rēhia.
Rather than a conventional western plastic playground, it embraces the taiao.
“It’s using the landscape, the trees that are there, we’re looking to bring in things that are natural to the environment and would have been natural to that environment many years ago, that our ancestors would have played on that area, so it’s a connection to our past as well as bringing it into the future,” Ms Barker says.