Stakeholders are working to introduce Fiji’s traditional games back into schools as a form of physical activity.

The Fiji National Sports Commission (FNSC) together with the Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts, Ministry of iTaukei Affairs and World Health Organisation will be conducting workshops around 13 schools in the country to revive the sports.

With 10 weeks to the official opening of the traditional games competition, FNSC sports development manager Joji Liga said they are currently in the planning stage of the project.

Out of 21 games, Liga says, six games have been selected.

“We have six of the 21 sports we are trialing out through the schools and come March we will want to have a competition,” Liga said.

“These games were played at certain times and we are trying to revive them.

“The Commission is also trying to revive outrigger paddling, which is a dying sport in Fiji and we have invested into it as well.

“We want to introduce the traditional version of canoeing which also exist in traditional water sport and this is all part of the planning process.”

iTaukei Affairs senior cultural officer Melaia Tikoitoga said under the UNESCO guideline, 2013, the ministry had researched on some topics including traditional these games and they made a data.

“We are looking to have the workshop next month and allow transmission of knowledge and also train teachers,” Tikoitoga said.

Fiji Secondary Schools Rugby Union vice-president Biu Colati said teachers would be taught on how they could revive the game.

Colati added through the workshop a teacher could identify any information that he or she might stumble across referring to the games and how that information can be turned into a game.

“It is not so much about taking it out as a sport but how they could revive the traditional games,” Colati said.

“Every teacher needs to be equipped with the knowledge of how to revive those games with information that are around Fiji.”

Edited by Leone Cabenatabua

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