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Category:

Games(1)

Topic:

Types of games

Consultant:

Jotama

Hula = wrestling
A challenge is to cross the arms and slap the biceps and walk about. This signifies one is ready to meet all comers.

A fall is to throw a man on the ground, when the winner shouts "Te mate" or the man is dead.

Bow and arrow
Bow is loloki; arrow kanatau. Used by boys for shooting pigeons and rats. The bow as demonstrated with sticks by Jotama; it was held horizontal to the ground and the thumb was held on top of the arrow.

Disc throwing
This game is called rafa and is played with 12 discs, 11 of which are made of wood and called rafa, and the twelvth one made of turtle shell and called furi or für taku.

Taku is turtle shell. The furi is larger and thrown last to sweep off all the opponent's discs.

The point is to put the dics on a mat about four feet long and two feet wide. No whip is used. A player is to win the game with a score of 12.

Tops
Tops made of coconut shell are called piok fag, and are spun with breadfruit bark whip.

Dart Throwing
Tika is the name of the game and the dart. The dart is made of utoa or cane. The wooden tip is called palag, into which the cane shaft is set. No spear thrower used. 12 points are needed to win.

Category:

Games(2)

Topic:

Discs

Consultant:

Niua

Discs: One game with throwing discs was similar to deck quoits. They threw to put the discs on a mat, and tossed alternately so that one could knock the other's good throws off.

The score of the game was ten.

The discs were made of blue gum or turtle bone. They called these discs rafa.

A second game of disc throwing was called furi. Each side had one large disc as well as the rafa. The large disc was thrown last to wipe off all the others.

Category:

Games(3)

Topic:

Tika

Consultant:

Aisake

• tika = dart throwing
• 'uruto'a = wooden point
• kasa = shaft
• unu = coconut fibre on finger
• ga oi? = throwing stick

A whip was used sometimes in place of the stick, but was considered as a substitute only.

poa sau = the winners of the first 12 point game

Dart throwing is played in the course of the beach road between two men, ho'aga or districts. It is seasonal, or if played by one ho'aga, the whole island immediately takes it up.

It is played by matched teams of ho'aga, villages or districts. The game is held usually in the road way. It is very important to win the first game which makes the poa sau of the winner. Even if the later games are lost, the poa sau is a decided partial victory.

The darts are about 2-4" long with shafts of bamboo capped by a heavy wooden pellet to make them carry. The dart is notched like an arrow at the end and this is caught in a string or piece of sinnet tied around the finger. The dart is hurled from this string in order to keep the tip of the finger from being cut (taken from the throwing stick).

There is a throwing stick used also but not in present day. In a "competition it is not used as it hurls too far and is not considered as showing a man's real ability. " Sometimes they use a string when they can't get a stick. Evidently a throwing whip is known. The throwing stick is caught over the end of the dart. Tip on shaft is used in Fiji.

Category:

Games(4)

Topic:

Stilts

Consultant:

Undisclosed

la la'oga
Made of 2 posts or stakes. The Foot pieces, are short stakes tied parallel with broad bark thong. When a walker steps on the end of the foot piece it turns at a right angle to the stilt and is held in place by the tightened thong.

Category:

Games(5)

Topic:

Mumu

Consultant:

Isaac

Solo kol(i?)kulu (or mumu) is a game played under a mat. One hides under a mat (which is the meaning of solokolkulu) and another one on top tries to discover by feeling, who is underneath.

There is a reference to this game in Father Trouillet's book. The game is called mumu there.

Category:

Games(6)

Topic:

Pass the shell

Consultant:

Katalina

Fati nene
This game is played by a group of people, sitting close together in a circle. One person sits in the center. The players in the circle have a shell or bundle of sticks which they pass from one to another. The passing is made under the knees which are drawn up in front of each one. The shell is hidden and everyone is moving and making motions of passing it while they shout "fati nene". The one in the center tries to guess where it is and when he does, the holder must take his place.

Category:

Games(7)

Topic:

Tops

Consultant:

Niua

Piok fag
Tops were made of the tops of coconut shells, and spun with the strip of a piece of bark. The name means a lazy man's game, because it is played by the idle.

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