A professor at Auckland University says a lost Maori tradition is being revived in order to encourage tangata whenua to take up physical activity.
Charles Royal is a professor of indigenous development and the director of Nga Pae o te Maramatanga, a centre that specialises in research relevant to Maori communities.
He has told a health conference in Rotorua that iwi played games, danced and told stories in whare tapere, houses in pre-European Maori villages.
Professor Royal said the tradition was lost in the 19th century when Maori moved from old pa villages and into new townships.
However he said a modern form of the whare tapere is being used by his hapu in Hauraki.
Professor Royal said encouraging physical activity in a context that fosters the arts, cultural identity and community relationships could be more effective for tangata whenua than other programmes that look at exercise as a separate thing.
