Venu Menon
Wellington, July 14, 2023
Wellingtonians thronged the waterfront at dusk to witness the Mana Moana Poneke, a series of indigenous short films projected on a water screen in the Whairepo Lagoon, to mark Matariki day on July 14.
Mana Moana Poneke is a collaboration between Maori and Pasifika musicians, artists, writers and choreographers.
The crowd shuffled past the food stalls that lined the walkway as large-scale images of humans, animals and birds, chronicling the indigenous story, were projected on the walls of the nearby Te Papa National Museum.
The events on the waterfront were organised by the Wellington City Council.
The traditional hautapu ceremony took place on Mt Ngongotaha in Rotorua after the sighting of the Matariki star cluster at dawn.
The rising of Matariki marks the start of the New Year in the Maori lunar calendar.
Matariki had been declared a national holiday in New Zealand since 2022.
The day is marked by special ceremonies rooted in Maori tradition, legend, myth, and spiritual practice.
Matariki is associated with farewelling the dead, honouring the ancestors and rejoicing over the harvest season.
Ceremonies reflect the three moods or themes of Matariki, and include calling out the names of those who passed away in the course of the year, preparing food to “feed the stars” and holding discussions or wananga to plan for the year ahead.
The collection of nine stars is visible just before dawn in the north-eastern horizon of the sky, positioned at the tail end of the Milky Way.
In the indigenous Maori belief system, each of the nine stars rules over a specific natural domain.
Experts have identified the nine stars and their significance:
Matariki, the guardian star the cluster is named after, signifies wellbeing; Waiti symbolises fresh water; Waita rules over the ocean; Tupuanuku is linked to the soil; Tupuarangi governs the skies; Waipunarangi controls rain; Ururangi directs the wind; Pohutukawa watches over the dead; and Hiwa-i-te-rangi guides the future.
The Matariki cluster holds significance outside New Zealand.
Known by different names across the Pacific region, it is Mataliki in Tokelau, Niue, Tuvalu and Tonga; Matali’i in Samoa; Matari’i in Tahiti; and Makali’i in Hawaii. It remains Matariki in the Cook Islands.
The Matariki constellation is known as Pleiades in Greece.
While there is a broad consensus among iwi in Aotearoa around the Maori New Year, some endorse the star Puanga rather than Matariki.
In Whanganui, Taranaki, the Far North and the South Island, Puanga is the more visible star.
The Maori year follows the lunar calendar and consists of 354 days, as opposed to the Western calendar year of 365.25 days. This explains why Matariki falls on different dates of the Western calendar each year.
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
