A group of tauira from a Taranaki school have raised over $120,000 to fund their sports and cultural exchange to Japan.
53 tauira and coaches from Opunake high school have taken three teams including two basketball teams and their first XV rugby.
Speaking to Te Ao Māori News before the group departed on Sunday night, Coach Kylee Symes said it had taken them eight months of fundraising to hit their target.
“We had to fundraise over $120,000 in eight months which we done. We got our target. That was a lot of cutting firewood, doing hāngī, doing raffles and just doing whatever we could to make it.”
Symes said he got the call up from former teacher Mr Watt about taking the team to Japan on a sports trip.
“At that time I said “Wow” [and] I didn’t know what to say. After that we got on to it and started fundraising and made it happen.”
Both sporting teams will spend two weeks at schools in Nagoya and Tokyo.
“Some of the them probably wouldn’t of never got out of the country. It has been a big effort to get there. The fundraising has been huge,” he said.
With only a few days left, the team is starting to anticipate the trip.
“The team is excited. We’ve probably left it to this week to really push that we are going to play in Japan cause we’re still playing club rugby here.
“We’re going really well so we’ve left it to tonight, they’ll start really buzzing.”
New experience
Teraukura Winiata (Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāti Hinerangi) is one of the students on the trip representing the school’s rugby team.
“It’s important. Big experience, new experience for all of us and it’s going to be a lifetime experience for most of us.
“It’s been heaps of hard work leading up to Japan. [Including] All our fundraisings and all our coaches [efforts] behind the scenes.”
Winiata said he is looking forward to sharing his culture once they’re over in Japan.
“I’m going to try some new food [cuisine]... We’re going to share some things that we do such as our waiata, haka and we’re got a few Māori games to do.”
The trip coincides with the Māori All Blacks and the Tall Ferns who are competing in Japan.
Asia New Zealand Foundation helped to sponsor this trip.