Matariki

I know it's been a while.  The question is, can I tear myself away from the Olympics long enough to write my latest blog?  I've just watched Jessica Ennis win gold for Team GB in the heptathlon, so feeling suitably buoyed up I collect my thoughts and my laptop, and prepare to tell you all about Matariki - Maori New Year!

Matariki falls around the winter solstice every year.  The date is chosen to coincide with the sighting of the new moon in conjunction with the rise of the Pleiades star cluster, otherwise known as the Seven Sisters.  There are 2 translations of Matariki - Mata Riki, meaning 'tiny eyes' and Mata Ariki, meaning 'Eyes of God'. As with so many things Maori, Matariki was given a stiff ignoring for many years outside of Maori culture, but is now being officially celebrated, as befits a bi-cultural nation.  So this year the date chosen in Auckland is Wednesday 20 June (the date varies around the country as chosen by different iwi) and Roy's museum holds a Dawn Karakia (prayer) ceremony at 6 am, attended by around 120 people.  This is Roy's photo below...

[Dawn, viewed from the Domain]

The museum holds a series of Matariki events spanning the next four weeks.  Which is why for 3 consecutive Saturdays Roy and I visit various sites to participate in a programme seeking to 'Honour the past, embrace the present, guide the future'.

Our first venue is Maungawhau, otherwise known out here as Mount Eden, one of Auckland's more dramatic volcanoes which erupted some 15000 years ago.  Site of a successful Maori pa (village, usually fortified) over centuries, it is now a much-visited tourist attraction with splendid views over the city and north shore.  There are around 30 of us, including our 3 speakers - a volcanologist, an archaeologist, and Pita Turei, a Maori historian and story teller.

 [This photo, rather blurred, appeared on the museum website, but I like that

it's an aerial view and helps place the maunga in context]

The sun shines as we clamber up and down the terraces and look down into the crater, as our experts tell us about the foundation of the volcano, the archaeological significance of the area and, with Pita, some dramatic narratives involving princesses, Maori chiefs, warriors, gods, battles and love stories........

[Pita in full flow, complete with feather in his hair 

and mere (literally a Maori war club!) in his pocket]

[The massive crater of Maungawhau - my photo]

We are reassured by our volcanologist's assessment of the likelihood of another volcanic eruption in Auckland in the next few years (not very likely), and charmed by the passion felt by everyone for this site of historic significance to Maori and Pakeha alike.

Next Saturday, sun still shining, we are at the marae near Bastion Point, scene of an emotionally-charged Maori land occupation in 1977 that lasted 506 days, until the Court ruled the occupation illegal in 1978 and the police were controversially sent in to remove the unarmed Maori.  Interestingly that land has never been developed, so although the Maori appeared to lose the case, somehow they ended up winning the battle - and the land they claimed was theirs.  The area has definitely benefited as a result.

We see familiar faces from the previous outing, and several new faces join us as we wander round the bush area being carefully replanted with indigenous shrubs and trees.  This time our guides include a landscape gardener (employed by the local iwi), a botanist from the museum, and an expert in Maori herbology and plant lore.  We learn that this area is being replanted using a botanist's notes from the museum's collections, to encourage wildlife and birdlife to return post massive urbanisation, and to remind Maori (and Pakeha come to that) about the fundamental connection between human beings and the land we all inhabit.  We need first to heal the land, then we can find healing of our wairua (spirit).....  There are plants for treating sunburn, diarrhoea, respiratory problems, bites, stiff joints, diabetes, eczema, scarring, and many other ailments; and they're all growing now on a cliff top alongside Tamaki Drive in Auckland!

[A variety of bushes with the city clearly in view behind]

We round a corner and find a group of Maori volunteers planting trees.  Turns out they're a kapahaka troupe from the Waitakere district.  We persuade them to give us a demonstration ...

[Our very own impromptu haka]

Our third Saturday is also sunny and dry (what are the odds midwinter?), and this time we set off for the Auckland Zoo.  I confess this is my first visit to the Zoo here.  I have been meaning to go for months, but it hasn't happened - until now.  We continue to explore the relationship between humans and land/flora/fauna, this time in the company of 2 Maori carvers and makers of Taonga puoro:  Taonga (treasure), pu (tube), oro (oscillating), ie various types of wooden or bone musical 'instruments' that are used by Maori to speak to the land and its occupants.  The notes produced are a sort of reflection of the sounds made by birds and animals, and blend in beautifully - as we see through several different demonstrations offered to us throughout our morning together.

 [Bernard Makoare, who carves and plays the taonga puoro,
and is part of the Taumata-a-iwi, 

the Maori group that advises Auckland museum's Trust Board]

[A small selection of Bernard's pieces; we witnessed him playing the conch shell 

the previous evening at the opening of a new show at Auckland Art Gallery] 

I get up close and personal with a Tui and a Kaka in the aviary...

 [You can see the long tongue the Tui uses to gather nectar from flowers and blossom;

they have a distinctive song, heard day and night long outside our home here]

[A Kaka, a  large New Zealand parrot]

This area of the Zoo also has several Maori carvings designed to complement the natural setting.  Below is a wetlands carving of a rabbit, with traditional paua shell eyes, carved by Manos Nathan, one of New Zealand's foremost Maori artists, more usually dealing in clay and ceramics.

And finally I get to see my first Kiwi!!  Not easy to spot in the darkness - or photograph - but I promise you that this brown blur in the middle here is indeed a real Kiwi.

So, our first encounter with Matariki.  Hope you've enjoyed sharing a bit of Te Wananga, Maori studies. I have great empathy for the way they view the land and all that it holds. Traditional Maori values are to share and care for the land.  It is also the Christian understanding that started with Adam and Eve - that they (and we) were/are 'stewards' of the land and everything connected with it. 

Not a bad idea to remind ourselves of that sometimes........