Matariki expert Rangiānehu Mātāmua honoured for services to Māori astronomy
Thursday, 29 December 2022
A man whose name can be translated as “misty sky” in te reo Pākehā has been honoured for his work helping people see and understand the night sky clearly.
Professor Rangiānehu Mātāmua (Tūhoe) – usually known as Rangi for short – has been made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year’s Honours list for services to Māori astronomy.
“Not the best name for someone who looks at the stars,” Mātāmua joked in an interview.
His father gave him the name Rangiānehu, he said, a reference to Tūhoe being known as the ‘children of the mist’.
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“So it has that connection to the misty sky.”
On being honoured he said it was great to be recognised for doing work he loved.
“You don’t do it for honours, you do it for a passion, a belief.”
His honours citation describes him “as one of New Zealand’s foremost Māori scholars for his contribution to Māori astronomy, star lore and Māori culture”.
A key figure in Matariki becoming a national holiday for the first time in 2022, Mātāmua identified the nine stars Māori perceived in the cluster, in contrast to the seven associated with the Pleiades of European tradition.
On his plans for 2023, Mātāmua said a focus for him would be “the entrenching of Matariki as a holiday – we’ve gone through the first holiday and it was amazing”.
He also wanted to further entrench understanding of the day’s significance and spread knowledge about Matariki generally “making it a much more important part of our national identity, whoever you are”.
He said celebrating Matariki is a nice expression of unity in Aotearoa given all cultures have looked to the heavens.
“There isn’t a single one of us who doesn’t come from people who looked at the stars.”