Celebrating Matariki New Zealands historic moment.
The Maori new year was legally recognised for first time on Friday 24th June. There was much excitement and debate over how best to mark the day. How did you and your whānau spend your first Matariki? Astronomers and stargazers huddled in the freezing early morning cold, to see the constellations and the new year rising. Observatories around the country opened their doors, and at Takaparawhau, overlooking Auckland, a thousand people gathered at dawn for the open of a hangi, watching the steam and smoke rise into the dark sky in an offering to the stars. Across Aotearoa, people were gathering in pre-dawn mornings and icy winter nights to honour Matariki. This year marked the first time the celebration was formally and legally recognised, making it the country’s first Indigenous public holiday! It’s incredibly significant. It’s from here. It’s not imported, like Christmas or Easter or the Queen’s birthday. It’s for us and what is relevant to our environment.
Matariki is the Māori name for the star cluster known as Pleiades. The full name is “Ngā mata a te Ariki Tawhirimātea – the eyes of the God Tawhirimātea”. It is a time to celebrate the Māori New Year, new life, to remember those who’ve passed, and to plan for the future. And it’s a time to spend with whānau and friends – to enjoy kai (food), waiata (song), tākaro (games), and haka. Matariki travels the night skies during the year until the cold months when it disappears from the night sky for about 28 days. When it reappears, it is a signal that the Māori New Year has begun. Our tūpuna (ancestors) would look to Matariki for help with their harvesting. When Matariki disappears, it was time to preserve crops for the winter. When it re-appears tūpuna would read the stars to predict the upcoming season – clear and bright stars promised a warm and abundant winter while hazy stars warned of a bleak winter. Matariki has nine visible stars. They nclude: Matariki, Tupuārangi, Waipuna-ā-Rangi, Waitī, Tupuānuku, Ururangi, Waitā, Pōhutukawa and Hiwa-i-te-Rangi. Each star holds a certain significance over our wellbeing and environment, as seen from the Māori view of the world.
