There's no single day for Matariki - so how do we pick a new holiday date?

Thursday, 10 September 2020

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

There’s no single day that marks Matariki, so when could a public holiday celebrating the Māori New Year fall? Brittney Deguara speaks with experts, advocates and iwi to hear their thoughts.

Trying to find a single date to celebrate a Matariki public holiday would be like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

On Monday, Labour announced plans to create a Matariki public holiday in 2022 if re-elected. Stuff launched a campaign for the holiday back in July, arguing we were overdue the creation of a unifying holiday that honours Aotearoa’s past and celebrates New Zealand’s future.

But unlike the December/January new year, there’s no single day that marks the Māori new year period.

Dr Rangi Matamua, is a Māori astronomy expert who has done a lot of work to help Aotearoa develop an understanding of Matariki.

Forcing a specific annual date might defeat the purpose of the season, according to Dr Dan Hikuroa, a senior lecturer for the University of Auckland's Te Wānanga o Waipapa.

“[That] wouldn’t be in keeping with the way Matariki itself is.”

Happy (flexible) new year

So why not make it moveable? It’s an idea that has the support of a number of experts, advocates and iwi – including Hikuroa.

We already do it for Easter, Te taiwhenau o heretanga’s board chairman Mike Paku commented.

“New Zealanders are very used to Easter moving every single year. The fact that it [could] be a moving date [would] not be too much of a problem,” Action Station’s director Laura O’Connell Rapira said.

Based on the cycle of the lunar calendar, the public holiday could move on a three-year rotation.

Dr Rangi Mātāmua, a Māori astronomy professor at the University of Waikato, highlighted the middle of June, late June and the middle of July as an ideal cycle.

Dr Dan Hikuroa believes the proposed Matariki holiday should be “Mondayised”.

“[It could] shift up and down the calendar system generally over a three-year period.”

There’s no annual date range for Matariki, but the celebration period usually spans seven or eight days in winter depending on the lunar cycle, Mātāmua explained.

Hikuroa, who is also the culture commissioner for the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO has previously spoken to Stuff about the difficulty in choosing just one day.

However, Hikuroa was certain it made sense to “Mondayise” the holiday, as was done with Waitangi Day and Anzac Day through an amendment of the Holidays Act 2003.

This is what Labour is planning to do. Kelvin Davis, the party’s co-leader, said on Monday he expects it to always be at the beginning or end of a weekend.

Friday has been the chosen day for Ngāti Kahungunu’s Matariki celebrations across the Hawke’s Bay region for the last two decades.

Te Rangi Huata, Ngāti Kahungunu events manager, has been one of the driving forces behind these events, and has helped iwi in Dunedin and Auckland expand their Matariki offerings over the years. He didn’t see the date as having a big impact on celebrations.

“The public holiday is the exclamation mark of the celebration, but [it] doesn’t mean that the celebration is for that one day, the celebration can take part over a number of weeks.”

Time to kōrero

The markers for Matariki and Puanga – another star marking the Māori new year marker – vary around the country. To accommodate tribal variations, a wider, more inclusive discussion is needed.

Labour plans to work with Matariki experts to determine appropriate dates for the holiday, but more voices may be needed.

“[Discussion] needs to be at the community [level],” Hikuroa said.

While there may be some loud voices on the matter – both for and against – it will be pivotal to ensure all of them are heard. This could be done through public forums, community meetings and online submissions.

“Ultimately it will be a decision that government has to make, but in an ideal democracy it will be a decision New Zealanders have made,” Hikuroa said.

He suggested Māori groups initiate the conversation and lay out an appropriate timeframe – or at least be given the opportunity to do so – before a larger group helps choose the specific date.

Mātāmua raised the idea of a committee made up of Māori astronomers and experts in the field to lead this discussion.

“That’s not a call that any individual can make … it will need to be [in] consultation,” he said.

Ngāti Kahungunu’s Huata thought it would be great if his iwi was involved in the process as they have been celebrating the season for 21 years. However, they won’t “spit the dummy”, he laughed.

“If the dates work out for us, fantastic. If it doesn’t, well it will be great for the whole country to join in.

“We’re supportive whether we’re involved or not.

In terms of timing, Labour is aiming for 2022 to mark the first Matariki holiday. This allows time for businesses to financially recover from the effects of Covid-19.

Mātāmua would like to see conversations start now for what he described as a wonderful, fantastic and challenging task.

“[There] needs to be a certain amount of groundwork put in place for this to be accepted as widely as possible and to be rolled out in the correct way.

”You’re asking, really, to inform 5 million people because it’s going to affect 5 million people, and so that information will need to go out as soon as possible.”