Matariki public holiday petitions 'standing on the shoulders of giants'

Thursday, 23 July 2020

Action Station director of campaigns Laura O'Connell Rapira is one of the driving forces behind the petition to create a public holiday in honour of the Māori New Year.

Growing up, Laura O’Connell Rapira didn’t know about Matariki. Neither did her parents.

“I don’t actually remember hearing about it growing up,” she told Stuff.

To ensure the next generation of Kiwis don’t have the same experience, she launched a petition calling for Matariki to become a public holiday.

“I want to help contribute to a country and world in which my children won’t grow up with the same experience that I had or my parents had, which is they will grow up knowing about Matariki, with it just being the norm.”

O’Connell Rapira is one of the driving forces behind Action Station’s petition to create a public holiday in honour of the Māori New Year. In just two months, more than 23,000 people have pledged their support.

With a 10-year campaign record, she noted it was nice to fight for something, rather than against it.

“It’s been really lovely to put forth a collective aspiration and then [have] people rally around it from all different walks of life.”

The petition will be presented to Labour MP Kiri Allan at Te Papa in Wellington on Friday alongside a second petition organised by Lewis Holden of New Zealand Republic.

Matariki has become a widely accepted festival across the country. (First published, September 25, 2020.)

Action Station and New Zealand Republic joined forces to make their voices louder. Collectively they have garnered almost 30,000 signatures.

O’Connell Rapira and Action Station have been campaigning on this issue since 2017. But it was comments from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in May that sparked the petition.

'There are pros and cons, and I think we should be open about that,' Ardern said about potentially introducing a new public holiday.

In response, O’Connell Rapira, who is the director of Action Station, shared her thoughts on social media. From there, it took off.

Influential figures including musician Stan Walker and journalist Patrick Gower got behind the idea and it spread. Action Station began hosting community education events, utilising the power of social media to share the petition, and polling members of the public to gauge interest.

When Stuff launched its campaign in support of the movement on Monday, interest spiked. The petition garnered around 10,000 new signatures.

“I’m proud of not just our team but actually all of the people who have been working for Matariki for a very long time,” O’Connell Rapira said.

If the petitions from Action Station and New Zealand Republic move through the paces and result in legislative change, the success will belong to many voices.

“We are standing on the shoulders of giants of this mahi,” O’Connell Rapira said.

“I’m proud that we could see the moment and seize the moment, but I’m also very grateful that the moment only exists because of the work that came before us.”

Matariki events are already taking place around the country. In Auckland, the Te Taumata Kapa Haka Matariki event was a pop-up lunch-time performance at Britomart.

The Matariki Day Bill put forward by Rahui Katene in 2009 was what influenced Holden to launch his petition. Around 10 years after the bill failed to move past its first reading, New Zealand Republic’s call was launched.

It opened mid-2019 and only recently closed. In total 3667 signatures were collected.

Holden said this was the first petition for the group and it went reasonably well, but there were various setbacks, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, that limited public promotions.

“The numbers were still surprising,” he told Stuff. “From our perspective it's been positive.”

Growing up, Holden, who is Pākehā, recalls celebrating the unique season, but over the years he noticed a lack of recognition in the wider community.

“I always felt that as a country we don’t do a very good job of acknowledging indigenous New Zealanders, acknowledging Māori.”

Based on the attention the petition received, he noted a strong desire from the people of New Zealand to include unique Māori traditions in daily life, and a growing awareness of Matariki as part of the country’s cultural fabric.

“It’s been great to see the amount of support out there.”

Polling carried out by Action Station found 63 per cent of participants support Matariki becoming a public holiday.

Once the petitions have been handed to Allan, they will then be presented to the relevant select committee. Adding a public holiday requires an amendment of the Holidays Act 2003.

O’Connell Rapira was confident the first Matariki public holiday will be marked next year.

“If we keep up the same energy and the same momentum … we can win it in 2021.”

But securing the public holiday is just phase one.

“What comes next is actually what we do in [the] community,” she said.

Action Station has been organising and educating members of the community to be ready to host Matariki events next year.

“When people use their power and when they use it collectively, it does, in my view, become an unstoppable force for great,” she added.

O’Connell Rapira encouraged people to start small and start local, look at resources available online and start conversations with whanau, friends and colleagues about how to incorporate Matariki celebrations into the calendar.