It's official: Matariki gets a public holiday
Thursday, 7 April 2022
For Professor Rangi Mātamua, a Tūhoe astronomer who has become the go-to on Matariki and the Maramataka (Māori lunar calendar), Thursday was a day of absolute elation.
The bill making Matariki an official public holiday passed its final reading on Thursday afternoon, which means Aotearoa will have its first Matariki public holiday this year, on June 24.
Te Pire mō te Hararei Tūmatanui o te Kāhui o Matariki (the Matariki Public Holiday Bill) received 77 votes in favour, with National and ACT voting against.
National’s Crown-Māori relations spokesman Shane Reti said Matariki shouldn’t be recognised with a day off unless another public holiday was removed.
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He said the cost of a new public holiday, estimated to be about $443.4 million, was too high. However, Parliament was told the additional public holiday could have a positive economic impact – with benefits estimated to be between $310.4m to $496.1m.
Reti wouldn’t be drawn on which public holiday he would choose to remove for Matariki, but other National MPs have pushed to remove Labour Day.
He also criticised the Government for not leading more discussion about Matariki, and said declaring a public holiday before getting more buy-in was putting the “cart before the horse”.
Mātamua travelled to Parliament to see the bill pass, saying it was “a historic moment for us as a nation”.
“I’m elated,” he said. “We will look back and realise this is when we began understanding who we are, our nationality and what makes us unique.”
He said Matariki was a time to remember the past, celebrate the present and plan for the future.
Mātamua had been the chairman of the Matariki Advisory Group, and dismissed criticism that the specific date of a Matariki holiday diminished the significance of tribal variations to the Māori New Year.
Associate Arts and Culture Minister Kiritapu Allan said she was personally excited to see Matariki become a public holiday, and honoured to be the minister responsible for this bill.
She said the day off came second to the cultural importance of recognising an event unique to te ao Māori and Pasifika, as Matariki is marked across Te Moana Nui A Kiwa.
“Our Māori caucus is ecstatic, and our Pacific caucus is excited to tell the stories of what Matariki means to them,” she said.
For Allan herself, the event holds added importance. Her first daughter is named after the youngest of the nine stars of Matariki, Hiwa i te Rangi.
Hiwa i te Rangi represents the future, aspirations and desire during Matariki – which itself is marked over weeks not just a day.
“For my daughter, and all of her generation, they’ll grow up with this being normal,” Allan said.
“Whatever your relationship to Aotearoa is, my hope is that you can connect and reflect on this day.”
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson said the recognition of Matariki through a public holiday could bring all of Aotearoa together, in accordance with tikanga Māori.
“He kaupapa mō te ao katoa, mō ngā tangata katoa, mō te iwi Māori katoa, ki te whakamana i te mātauranga o te Māori,” she said. (“This is something for the whole world, for everyone, for the Māori people, to uplift and affirm traditional Māori knowledge.”)
Te Rā o Matariki would be New Zealand’s 12th public holiday.
The exact day would move, depending on the stars, but for the next 30 years Te Rā o Matariki would always fall on a Friday.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised to make Matariki a public holiday during the 2020 election camapign.
Stuff campaigned in 2020 to make Matariki a holiday, and Parliament received a petition of 35,000 people calling for the annual event to be recognised with a public holiday.