About and FAQ's
Kaupapa means "Theme" in Māori.
Creator
Kura Rēhia, a collective passionate about celebrating te reo Māori through play, creates board games, resources and events for a bilingual Aotearoa. Kaupapa is the first board game Designed and produced in New Zealand, that is made with sustainable materials through an eco-friendly printing process. Kaupapa is the first of its kind in board games for speakers and learners of te reo Māori. Released since of May 2021, it has been extremely popular with people wanting to learn and speak te reo Māori in homes, schools and at events.
Who can play Kaupapa?
Everyone can play! Whether you are fluent or not KAUPAPA is the board game to build a bilingual Aotearoa.
KAUPAPA for beginners: KAUPAPA can be played by anyone starting to learn te reo. If you are at the kākano (beginners) stage of learning, you can use actions, sound effects and English words to describe the word on the card. English definitions are provided on Kupu (word) cards. Beginners can use it to learn new words, and fluent speakers can create a fast-paced, playful Māori language immersion environment.
How to Play?
In one minute, describe as many words as possible to your teammates. The more words you describe, the faster your team advances across the board. Rise to Māui’s challenges along the way! The first team to reach the TOA (champion) tile wins the game.
General
With 900 words spanning rākau to rangatira, KAUPAPA is your chance to have hysterical fun, use your reo and expand your Māori vocabulary at once! It is a word description game that can be played at any level – beginners can use it to learn new words, and fluent speakers can create a fast-paced, playful Māori language immersion environment.KAUPAPA is a fun way to facilitate learning in the classroom, suitable for absolute beginners right through to fluent speakers of te reo Māori. The game does not require the teacher to be proficient in te reo Māori, however we encourage teachers to model accurate pronunciation of Māori words.
Our Goal
"Empowering youth to connect, learn & give back"
General
te reo Māori is the first language of Aotearoa, spoken by the indigenous people of Aotearoa (New Zealand), the Māori people. It has been apart Māori culture since the 13th century and have been taught across the country however, in recent years the number of te reo speakers has decreased drastically.
History
After the Second World War, te reo Māori faced many serious challenges with negative views associated with the language te reo and urbanization, Māori were away from their marae and whanau. This resulted them to be encouraged to speak more english as they integrated with the Pākehā population. According 'teara govt nz' the number of Māori has decreased since 1900, with 95% of Māori fluent in te reo Māori, the proportion had decreased to 25% by 1960. The greatest concern being the loss of language among children: only a quarter of Māori schoolchildren could speak Māori in 1953, and just 5% in 1975.
Goals
With te reo Māori becoming an endangered language, we have thought of what ways could effectively increase the number of Māori speakers and that was to teach more students the language and culture. This became our goal as a student led initiate despite our small community we wanted to help raise awareness and get individuals and community to recognize the urgent need of learning te reo. Especially with us as founders being bilingual and our core values at connecting back to our roots we knew this is what we wanted to share with others. Thus we have reached out to Kaupapa in hopes to support the number of individuals to become interested in learning te reo and the Māori culture.