On Friday we celebrate our first ever national public holiday for Matariki. Since early times humans of many cultures have looked to the sky seeking inspiration and guidance from the stars and incorporated beliefs in the marking of the change of seasons and shaping cultural rituals and understandings around these.

In many cultures the Matariki constellation is known as the Pleiades and has been worshipped and honoured in many ways.

Mātauranga Māori is a body of ancestral knowledge describing the beliefs, value systems and understandings that enabled tīpuna to survive in the world they lived in and to adapt to changes in the environment. Like many cultures, this knowledge was recorded in oral traditions and passed down through the generations.

In Mātauranga Māori the stars in the Matariki cluster have contemporary understandings:

Matariki – connected to wellbeing, good fortune and health, and respect and gratefulness for tīpuna for their role in ensuring these things

Pōhutakawa – connects to those who have died since the last rising of Matariki, respecting and connecting to tīpuna by acknowledging the deceased

Tupuānuku – gratitude for the food that is provided from Papatūānuku (the land, earth mother)) to sustain us, food grown in the earth cultivated and uncultivated

Tupuārangi – gratitude for the food that is provided from Ranginui (the sky, sky father) to sustain us, harvesting of birds and food from trees

Waitī – appreciation of and connectedness to water for survival focusing on fresh water, all it impacts including ourselves, and all the animals that live within rivers, streams and lakes

Waitā – appreciation and connectedness to the understandings of the extreme value of water for our survival, focusing on salt water, all it impacts on including ourselves, and food gathered from the sea, tides and floodwaters

Waipunarangi – all things related to rain and how it impacts te taiao (the environment around us) and out hauora and wellbeing

Ururangi – all things related to wind, how it impacts te taiao and our hauora and wellbeing

Hiwa-te-rangi – the need to do things that will ensure prosperity for whānau, hapu and iwi, prosperity and the promise of a prosperous season

(Source: Matariki He Taonga, Year 9 and 10 Teaching Resource, Ministry of Education)

Our students have been engaged in activities around Matariki which you can see in this newsletter. I hope you all enjoy whānau time tomorrow and sharing aroha, joy and food together.

Ngā mihi