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4<br />
Thursday <strong>February</strong> 1 <strong>2024</strong><br />
Growing sports association fosters<br />
ŌTAUTAHI Sports Association<br />
is synonymous with Māori sport<br />
in Christchurch. It has also seen<br />
a big growth in membership in<br />
recent years. So how did it all<br />
come about?<br />
The association is more than<br />
just a traditional sports club.<br />
Based in the central city, the<br />
organisation is strengthening its<br />
ties to the community and supporting<br />
generations of whānau to<br />
participate in sport and cultural<br />
activities.<br />
The club offers rugby, netball,<br />
softball, touch, and tag teams to<br />
its registration base, which has<br />
grown to almost 700 members.<br />
It also delivers cultural activities<br />
such as a whānau hauora programme,<br />
including mahi toi,<br />
waiata practice, te reo Māori<br />
initiatives, and Matariki events.<br />
Many of the organisation’s early<br />
members participated in the<br />
Māori Trade Training Scheme,<br />
bonding through their inaugural<br />
rugby team and helping to grow<br />
the kaupapa to what it is today,<br />
a whānau-focused hub of sports,<br />
recreation, and culture.<br />
“We have a long, rich history<br />
with Rehua Marae, and that is<br />
through the whakapapa of the<br />
Māori Trade Training kaupapa<br />
because a lot of our members<br />
originated from that marae,” said<br />
co-chair of Ōtautahi Sports Association<br />
Aromia Merito.<br />
IN ACTION: Rugby, being played here by the Taniwha U11 team at Lancaster Park, is one of the many sports offered by<br />
Ōtautahi Sports Association.<br />
The club’s popularity can be<br />
seen in the 48<br />
per cent increase<br />
in its membership<br />
numbers<br />
since 2020. With<br />
their registered<br />
members, 130<br />
Aromia<br />
volunteers, and<br />
whānau involvement,<br />
the wider<br />
Merito<br />
community associated with the<br />
club is now in the thousands.<br />
Māori and Pasifika numbers<br />
have also increased, which<br />
Merito attributes to their focus<br />
on whanaungatanga (family<br />
connections) and manaakitanga<br />
(generosity).<br />
“Our kaupapa is heavily fostered<br />
on whanaungatanga and<br />
manaakitanga and what that<br />
means for our whānau who have<br />
come from the North Island,”<br />
Merito said.<br />
“It’s that sense of belonging;<br />
You’re away from your iwi, you’re<br />
away from your hapū, and you’re<br />
away from your whānau. So<br />
they’re looking for that connection<br />
to home, and that’s what our<br />
rugby club started from.”<br />
Division two rugby coach<br />
Corey Te Rupe says he grew up<br />
around Ōtautahi Sports, as his<br />
father was an early member of<br />
the club.<br />
“I love the camaraderie,” he<br />
said.<br />
“I’ve made lifelong friends who<br />
I consider whānau through the<br />
club.”<br />
With its focus on whānau and<br />
community, Ōtautahi Sports is<br />
proud to be home to four generations<br />
of whānau. During the<br />
2022/23 softball season, the Merito<br />
and Hepi whānau celebrated<br />
their great-mokopuna taking<br />
the field as fourth-generation<br />
members.<br />
The Merito whānau has<br />
Charitable Trust<br />
DRIVER EDUCATION