Speech About Matariki

Hello. My name is Lynda and I want to talk to you today about how I believe that we New Zealanders should all celebrate Matariki.Matariki.  

 Of course we celebrate these festivalsfestivals because our ancestors came from places in EuropeEurope in the northernnorthern hemisphere. We haveWe’ve     just takentaken the bits of it that work for us and built our own set of customscustoms and traditionstraditions aroundaround it – things like our nativenative PohutakawaPohutakawa Christmas tree and barbequesbarbeques at the beach.  

But did you know that we have our very own homegrownhomegrown festival that isthat’s   a mixturemixture of New Year, Thanksgiving,Thanksgiving, a way of connectingconnecting with our ancestors,ancestors, and a way of celebratecelebrating the winterwinter solsticesolstice – the shortestshortest day of the year? Yes, it’s Matariki.

So firstly,firstly, what is Matariki? Well, Matariki is one of the most importantimportant traditionaltraditional Maori festivals. It takes its name from the group or clustercluster of seven stars, otherwiseotherwise knownknown as the Pleiades,Pleiades, which rise in our southernsouthern hemispherehemisphere skyskies in late May or early June. So that isthat’s   what makes it a winter solstice celebration.celebration.  

SecondlySecondly it gives us anotheranother opportunityopportunity to think about those New Year’s resolutionsresolutions we made in January,January, on our usual New Year's Day. Do you know where we get our calendarcalendar from? Well, it was put together by a EuropeanEuropean pope from the 16th century. For Maori, Matariki is the start of the new year, and it is basedbased on our own southern night sky and its stars. You might not have known that Maori have been such amazeamazing astronomers.astronomers. This observeobserving of the night sky helped pre-European Maori keep track of time and the seasonsseasons and, of course, it was an important way of findingfinding their way when they travelledtravelled around the PacificPacific OceanOcean in their canoes.canoes.  

Thirdly,Thirdly, Matariki gives us all an opportunityopportunity to rememberremember the lovedloved ones we havewe’ve     lost. We can share storystories about them, talk about how much they meantmeant to us. It’s a time to visitvisit their graves or their favouritefavourite places.

Fourthly,Fourthly, it is a time to celebrate the changechanging of the season. The Maori storehousesstorehouses would have been full of the crops that had been harvestedharvested and the seafoodseafood and birds collectedcollected throughoutthroughout the autumn – so that’s where the harvest festival or thanksgiving comes in. We do notdon’t   really have our own Thanksgiving festival like the Americans,Americans, so this would give us one. Just because we go off to the supermarketsupermarket to buy our food does notdoesn’t   mean we should notshouldn’t   think about where it all comes from. Perhaps we could make our own vegetablevegetable patch in the backyardbackyard or plant some trees. The Matariki stars can even tell you when and what to plant in it. If the stars are clear and bright, it will be a mild winter and so you can plant early, in September.September. But if the stars are bunchedbunched up and hazy, winter will be a cold one, and so you need to put off your plantingplanting until October.October.  

Lastly,Lastly, we can enjoyenjoy readingreading the legends about Matariki. There is the one about the angryangry god of the wind, Tawhirimatea,Tawhirimatea, teariinging out his eyes and throwing them into the heavens,s, or the one about a mother surroundedsurrounded by her six daughters.s.  

So how could we celebrate Matariki? Well, Maori celebrate this festival with their whanauwhanau (family), feasting,feasting, singing and dancedancing. We can do this, too. There are other traditions around Matariki like flyingflying kites. We, too, can enjoy this and other activityactivities that bring us closercloser to the heavens, like sendingsending up sky lanternslanterns or lettingletting off fireworks.fireworks. What fun! Or we can visit demonstratedemonstrations of Maori crafts, attendattend kapahakakapahaka concerts,concerts, or eat hangihangi food.

Thank you so much for listeninglistening to me. I hope I have convincedconvinced you all that it would be a great idea for the whole countrycountry to get behind Matariki – a truetruly home-grown festival that allowsallows us to share together with family and friends our country’s rich history,history, and to celebrate the naturalnatural cyclescycles of life down here at the bottombottom of the southern hemisphere.

• Prev
• Next