5 January 1995 Traditional 'Sports' A Topic At Leisure Studies Conference

Maori surfing prowess – which impressed European observers in the early days of contact – will be among traditional "sports" discussed at an international leisure studies conference at Lincoln University this month (January).

Lecturer Ailsa Smith of Lincoln University's Centre for Maori Studies and Research, says that sports at which Maori traditionally excelled, such as swimming and surfing, were written about with enthusiasm by early European observers.

In the case of surfing, boards or small surf canoes were used and the practice probably had ancestral links with the surfing tradition of the indigenous people of Hawaii.

Ms Smith 's presentation, entitled "Swimming, Surfing and the Horse That Came Out of the Tide: Some Maori Leisure Activities in Historical Perspective", is one of nine focusing on the theme "Connexions Between Cultures" at the 2nd Australian and New Zealand Association for Leisure Studies Conference being held at Lincoln University over 17-20 January.

Over 100 speakers from seven countries will converge on Lincoln for the conference which has the overall title "Leisure Connexions". Ninety research papers and four workshop sessions will be presented covering three themes – "Connexions Between Disciplines", "Connexions Between Cultures" and "Connexions Between Research and Practice".

"With 1995 being Maori Language Year, it is appropriate that the leisure of indigenous peoples should be among the topics raised at the conference," says the Head of Lincoln University's Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department, Professor Grant Cushman.

Another Lincoln lecturer speaking on the "Connexions Between Cultures" theme is Helen McGregor of the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department. She will discuss formal and informal processes of tourism education for Maori and Maori responses to these over the past 155 years.

In addition Ms McGregor will conduct a workshop on old Maori practices such as weaving, food gathering, songmaking and art to illustrate the difference between "leisure" activity in the Western sense and "cultural survival skills" in the Maori sense.

The conference will also address issues relating to the indigenous people of Australia with a keynote speech on Aboriginal leisure concepts being given by Professor Tracy Bunda, Director of the Aboriginal Education Centre at Australia's Newcastle University.

Major sponsors of the conference are the Hillary Commission for Sport, Fitness and Leisure and Apple Computers.

For full registration details the contact is Rick Mansell, Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, Lincoln University, telephone (03) 3252-811.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.