Matariki

On the first public holiday to mark Matariki, Tūhura Otago Museum will host a dawn ceremony to celebrate te tau hou Māori, in partnership with local rūnaka and the Dunedin City Council. As part of this, friends and whānau our community has lost over the past year will be remembered by projecting photographs of them onto the Museum façade.

“The dawn reappearance of stars Puaka and Matariki signals the Māori New Year, a period of reflection and celebration for iwi”, said Curator Māori, Gerard O’Regan. “It is a time to farewell the people we are leaving in this year as we embrace entering a new one”.

Everyone in Dunedin is welcome to gather, remember, and celebrate at a dawn ceremony on the Museum Reserve. To include a departed loved one in it, go to the Museum website (otagomuseum.nz/matariki) and upload an image with your details by 5pm, 15 June. Their photograph will then be among those overlooking the morning’s events.

Mana whenua will lead the ceremony, and there will be karakia and waiata, as well as kapa haka by the award-winning Waka Kōtuia group, before a free shared breakfast.

The event will start at 7am on Friday 24 June on the Museum Reserve, and celebrations will continue for the rest of the weekend with poi workshops, taonga pūoro displays and demonstrations, storytelling, Matariki-themed planetarium shows (including Mārama-a-Whetū), and a special makerspace where families can make a beeswax Wishing Candle and other crafts.

“We hope this coming together and sharing the celebration of the new season with our community will become a special tradition for Ōtepoti”, said Otago Museum Director, Dr Ian Griffin.