About This Project
“Remember The People”
Amateur sports people have played a key role in developing New Zealand society. Over the first one hundred years of New Zealand’s European settlement (during the period from 1850 to 1950), organised amateur sport shaped our national spirit, our community values and our family lives. It brought both Pakeha and Maori together.
Based on a spirit of volunteerism and the “corinthian spirit”, (playing for love not profit), the men and women who represented New Zealand internationally, nationally or locally relied on the support of communities who took pride in the athletic abilities and exploits of those with whom they lived, worked and socialised on a daily basis.
Amateur sport clubs have united people and fulfilled a significant social purpose, in creating the means by which suburban and rural communities throughout New Zealand established an identity, a sense of common purpose and a connection across diverse racial, religious and cultural backgrounds. This project aims to tell the stories of those who played a role in building this foundation of our national community life.
This project began in 2017, with a series of periodic articles published in the Association’s fortnightly e-zine “For the Love of the Game”. There are now over 100 published biographies of New Zealand amateur sportspeople who competed for the pride of their local communities, which will continue to grow.
Through this project, the Association intends to provide support for “Te Akomanga”, which is the New Zealand Government’s accepted programme for teaching and learning the history of New Zealand and New Zealanders.
The database is being continuously updated and all feedback is welcome.