At the edge of Ōnuku Bay, as the tide receded, Sport Canterbury staff gathered around their mauri stone. One by one, wai (water) from rivers across the region was poured over it in a blessing, including the Arahura, Māwhera, Rangitata, Rakaia and Waimakariri.

The stone was named Tūhono, to connect, to join, to unite.

On 4–5 June, around 30 Sport Canterbury staff travelled to Ōnuku Marae near Akaroa for a two-day noho grounded in whanaungatanga (relationships), shared learning, and the formal naming of the mauri (vital essence) stone, alongside the introduction of the organisation’s new waiata (song).

Sport Canterbury Chief Executive, Julyan Falloon, said the noho was deliberately kept focused.

“We always fall into the trap of trying to pack too much in when we bring our people together. This time it was about pulling that back and focusing on a couple of aspects we could do really well, building connection between people and creating space for learning.”

“Tūhono is becoming a really important grounding point for us,” Falloon said. “It’s something physical that holds meaning for the organisation. People can come back to it, and it gives a sense of connection, not just to their role but to the wider organisation and the region we work in.”

He said the waiata introduced at the noho sits alongside Tūhono as part of a longer process of building shared identity, rather than a one-off piece of work.

“The waiata has been a long process, around nine months of work,” he said. “It’s not something that’s just been created and dropped in. It comes from similar thinking around how we connect as an organisation and how we tell our story in a way that everyone can see themselves in.”

The waiata was gifted by composer Komene Kururangi, written specifically for Sport Canterbury.

It opens with an acknowledgement of the sky and the land, then moves across the rohe from Te Tai Poutini (West Coast) Waitaha (Canterbury), Hakatere (Ashburton), to Tīmaru, following the rivers as they flow to the sea. The Arahura. The Māwhera. The Rangitata. The Rakaia. The Waimakariri. The same waters just poured by the shore.

It reflects the places Sport Canterbury works across, alongside a shared focus on excellence, wellbeing, inclusivity and belonging, and the direction of more people, more active, more often.

Sport Canterbury Rautaki Māori Lead Heperi Harris says the waiata was designed to bring people together across that shared landscape.

“It was intentionally designed to try and connect us and help us feel as one,” he says.

“That same idea sits alongside Tūhono itself. It’s something to physically and culturally anchor us,” he says. “Like the stone in the water that holds your waka, wherever you’ve come from, you can tie in here.”

By the end of the noho, the staff stood together and sang our waiata for the first time.

“It’s a bit of a legacy piece… We’ll always have a waiata, we’ll always have a pounamu. Tūhono will be part of us forevermore,” Harris says.

Article added: Monday 15 June 2026