What is Matariki, the Māori new year?
Friday, 17 July 2020
*Before the turn of this century, few people knew of Matariki or understood its significance. Now, people across the country celebrate Matariki as if we always have.* Stuff’s Carmen Parahi explains its meaning and significance to Aotearoa New Zealand.
What is Matariki?
Matariki is the Māori name used to describe the entire star cluster also known as Pleiades.
Before sunrise during New Zealand’s winter, the cluster is visible as a faint sparkle of tiny dots when you look towards the northeast horizon.
**READ MORE:
* Appearance of Matariki and Puanga marks start of Māori New Year
* Tainui star lore shines through Matariki
**
Its appearance heralds the end of one year and the beginning of another, the Māori new year.
Generally, Māori acknowledge nine main stars in the group.
In parts of the country, it can be hard to see the Matariki group. Other stars are used to mark the new year in these places.
Some tribes in the north and west use Puanga (also known as Rigel), which is the brightest star in the Orion constellation. Tainui iwi, in the central North Island, recognise Rerehu, also known as Antares.
Matariki is also recognised in various island nations as far away as Hawaii in the north and Rapanui/Easter Island in the east.
How is it connected with the new year?
Matariki is aligned with the maramataka, the ancient Polynesian lunar calendar adapted by Māori in Aotearoa when they first arrived 800-1000 years ago.
The maramataka system synchronises the daily activities of people with the natural world (taiao), Moon, Sun, stars and planets. It uses cycles and phases instead of counting days, weeks and months. Particular natural indicators or signs (tohu) have to be present to determine each phase.
“Everything is attached to maramataka,” says Rereata Makiha, a renowned Māori astrologer and leading authority on the maramataka. “Tohu te rangi, tohu te whenua, tohu te moana (signs of the air, signs of the land, signs of the sea).”
Makiha calls the complex maramataka system a template for survival.
It is ancient and still being practised throughout the Pacific.
How is it celebrated?
In 2020, Dr Rangi Matamua won the prestigious Prime Minister’s science communicator award for his work on raising awareness about Matariki.
He says Matariki is spiritual, in terms of remembering those who have passed during the year and releasing their spirits.
“It is [also] cultural, in terms of the practices we go through to acknowledge the year, and it’s social.
“It’s a gathering point for all people to come together and celebrate what has happened in the year gone and let it go. To celebrate who we are presently and to wish for the promise of a new season and a new year.”
In the past, all life revolved around gathering kai and securing food and water sources for survival. People worked hard during the harvest to fill their stores, then in the cold months around the new year, they would gather to keep warm, share kai and entertain each other. This was the time when knowledge was shared through storytelling, songs and incantations.
“All of our history was passed down through stories, pūrakau,” says Makiha.
“The more fantastic the story is, the more likely it is to survive the many generations. If it’s not fantastic, and boring, it will be forgotten tomorrow.”
Makiha says this is the proper way to celebrate the new year through sharing kai, stories and time together. But it isn’t just about the new year.
People have to end the old year first, usually in a ceremony, either individually or in a group. Let go of the past and acknowledge all those who have passed away.
What is its significance to Aotearoa?
Whangārei lawyer Ashlee Peacock grew up not knowing about Matariki or the maramataka. She recently learned her people in Northland mark the new year using Puanga.
A Unesco youth leader, Peacock presented a kōrero with Culture Commissioner Dr Dan Hikuroa to the National Commission about the significance of the new year and maramataka.
“With the resurgence of our culture I’ve really started to take note of it,” she says.
“It’s pretty amazing to see all of the initiatives our whānau are engaging with. In my Facebook feed, everyone is doing Matariki, so that’s really cool to hear.”
Through Matariki, Peacock and many others are learning about the maramataka and how their ancestors used the system in their daily lives. She’s in awe of her tūpuna and their incredible feat navigating from the Pacific to Aotearoa.
“Matariki/Puanga is a time to be able to shift and focus our lives to something more meaningful,” says Peacock. “It opens the door to a whole lot of other knowledge.”
Peacock is excited to learn more about maramataka and how to use it in her everyday life. She has been reconnecting with her marae and the environment more.
“I feel very sad for my parents, mostly. Although my grandparents missed out on the reo, they grew up quite closely with maramataka and planting and gardening, the marae and the old people,” says Peacock.
“Whereas my parents were taken to the urban areas and brought up in cities, so there was another more severe severance from our heritage and taiao (environment).”
Peacock says the traditions and stories of the past are important because they can help people to navigate their own lives in the modern world.
“They provide us with the knowing that we do belong and we are connected,” she says.
“The resurgence of Matariki/Puanga is a reminder that we continue to walk in two worlds and we’re still here. Let's reclaim our spaces, our peoples and our stories.”
Matariki is about unity, environmental connection and protection, Matamua says.
“It is about the best things of humanity such as being kind to each other, aroha, those are the basic principles. It’s about charity, hope. It’s about promise.”
How Matariki has re-emerged in recent times?
The resurgence of the new year and maramataka started during the mid-1990s.
Its resurgence is due in part to various tribal groups and Māori government entities particularly Te Taura Whiri, the Māori Language Commission working with Te Papa and the Ministry of Education to hold events and develop resources for public use.
At the same time, Māori astronomical practitioners who hold scientific and cultural expertise also decided to purposefully share their knowledge publicly to help revive the ancient traditions.
“For me, Matariki is part of the decolonising of our division of time,” says Matamua.
“It’s reclaiming our traditional, environmentally driven, timekeeping systems that allow us to interact with our environment and acknowledge the changing of the year.”
The emergence and growing significance of Matariki has become a way for Māori to reconnect with their cultural practices lost through colonisation, Makiha says.
“It’s not their fault. We had a realisation a few years back that, if we don’t go back and teach it, then it’s going to get lost. That’s when we set up the society of Māori astronomy.”
When they started, if six people turned up to a presentation, it was a big crowd. In the more recent years, whenever Makiha speaks at different marae it is packed with people standing outside the doors and windows eager to hear about the maramataka.
In 2019, Makiha spoke at the SkyCity Theatre with Matamua and others about Matariki and the maramataka. The 500-seat auditorium was full, he says.
Should it be marked with a public holiday?
In 2020, Laura O'Connell Rapira started a petition to make Matariki a public holiday. Stuff later added its support to the campaign.
Matamua supports the idea but doesn’t think it should be called “Matariki Day” because different iwi use other constellations to mark it. He would prefer to use te mātahi o te tau, the new year, because it’s a more general term.
Although it’s traditionally Māori, Matariki is for all New Zealanders, Matamua says.
“It’s not a Māori celebration any more in my mind. It’s become a national celebration and that’s its future for me and I think that’s a wonderful part about Matariki.
“It transcends some of the political hangups we have with other celebrations like Waitangi Day and others that are heavily christianised or colonised, like Queen’s Birthday.”
He doesn’t want to see it become commercialised like other public holidays.
“I hope it doesn’t become a bastardised commercialised variation of what it is,” says Matamua.
“I hope we don’t see Matariki alcohol sales and we don’t shift away from the basic principles of what it is about.”
Makiha also supports a statutory holiday, but he too doesn’t think it should be called Matariki Day. His people around the Hokianga harbour use the star Puanga to reference the new year.
“If they’re going to have a celebration and go down to the pub and have a big piss up, then that’s just a waste of time,” he says.
This story was first published in July 2020. Te Pire mō te Hararei Tūmatanui o te Kāhui o Matariki (the Matariki Public Holiday Bill) was passed on April 7, 2022, and its first public holiday was celebrated last year on June 24.