Poi will be introduced to celebrate key moments in the upcoming WHITE FERNS v England T20 and ODI matches at Cello Basin Reserve in Te Whanganui-a-tara Wellington.
Poi movements
Poi will be used to reflect the umpires four and six signals (Poi Whā | Four and Poi Ono | Six) and also to simply cheer on and support the teams (Poi Whiua).
This initiative continues the celebration of on-field performances of wāhine athletes through the use of poi, which was started during the 2022 Women’s Rugby World Cup and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup held in New Zealand.
Poi are a taonga
Poi represent an extension of your body to express your joy, making them perfect for fans to celebrate and cheer on the teams.
A number of poi will be given to fans at the Cello Basin Reserve during each of the matches and there will also be a poi-making station for fans to learn how to make poi themselves. NZC will be encouraging fans to bring along their own poi. And importantly, fans will be reminded how to care for their poi while at the game.
The whakapapa of poi
As with all things in Te Ao Kikokiko (The Physical World) like that of Te Ao Wairua (The Spiritual World) everything has whakapapa (genealogy) which ties us back to times of when the world was created and our taiao (The Natural World).
According to our narratives within Te Ao Māori, the poi first came to be of when ancient beings of phenomena or Atua came in contact with each other, in Māori they are called Hine-Te-Repō, Pakoti and Tāne. It was through these beings that harakeke (flax) and raupō (bulrush) were then created. It was much later than when the first humankind came to walk these lands that they then took these two taonga (precious items gifted from our Atua) and constructed poi.
Poi today is now made with modern materials, but they still represent the mana (inherent ancestorial authority passed down) of its whakapapa and is now an internationally unique symbol that represents our culture and who we are as a people of Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu, New Zealand.
(Ngā mihi Te Āti Awa Taranaki Whānui for this information)
