Rosie Remmerswaal (Tangata Tiriti) & Āio Mataira-Wharerarauwhe (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu, Raukawa)
Photo: Mataara Stokes
When did you launch your business and why?
Our journey began in 2018 as three friends sat around a fire with a desire to have fun with te reo Māori. We wanted to play together in te reo, so we created Kaupapa for ourselves. When we realised how much our community wanted to play too, we collaborated with Aroha Tamihana and Hēmi Kelly, and Kura Rēhia was born in 2020. We’re inspired by the whakataukī ‘Kia kawea tātou e te rēhia’ —Let us be taken by the spirit of play, and see the huge potential of games to spark deep learning and connection.
Biggest achievements – and challenges?
A huge highlight was our launch event, Te Reo o te Rēhia, at Umupuia marae, just down the road from our flat where the game began. It was a full-day celebration of Māori games & pastimes with workshops led by amazing experts in the field and attended by over 200 people.
Since then, over 6,500 Kaupapa games have found their homes, and it is so heartwarming to hear stories of people using the games to infuse joy into learning or reclaiming te reo.
A significant challenge was designing Kaupapa to be accessible to beginners while still engaging for fluent speakers, so that a group with a range of reo levels can play together and have fun.
An unexpected lesson is learning to look ahead and keep up with demand—so we don’t sell out well before Christmas again!
Future plans for Kura Rēhia?
Alongside our playtesting crew, we are developing expansion packs for Kaupapa and a new game called TIPU, in collaboration with illustrator Sara Moana, perfect for brand-new learners of te reo Māori. Our aim is for Aotearoa to experience te reo Māori as central to how we have fun together as whānau and friends.
How do connections like the Whāriki Māori Business Network help?
‘He tangata, he tangata, he tangata’ - It is the people. Magic happens when people get together. A single conversation can spark a meaningful collaboration, and we think that’s awesome.
