Manawatia Matariki. That is a better way to greet you all today.
In the five years since we have had a formal Matariki holiday in Aotearoa New Zealand, the country has really embraced te reo Māori.
A Ministry for Culture and Heritage 2024 survey on our collective understanding of Matariki showed that our reo use had improved, our view of the importance of te reo Māori was better and our motivation to use te reo increased.
The survey showed that 49% of New Zealanders agree that Matariki helps them value te reo Māori, 45% agree that it motivates them to use more Māori words and 39% are motivated to learn te reo Māori.
That is hugely encouraging and shows that while some sectors (looking at you, government) are trying to undermine te reo and Māori culture, New Zealanders are embracing it and the celebration of te tau hou Māori, the Māori new year.
Maybe it is just that we love a party. Given our national stoic character, any excuse for a party outside in the brisk winter cold around a brazier is simply irresistible.
What a great combination of cultural preferences Matariki then represents.
It combines our collective love and respect for the abundance of our natural environment. We are reminded of our common concern for the sustainability of our natural resources.
It also gives us the chance to celebrate the whakapapa that binds us as a people.
We are building a national identity that is distinct to Aotearoa New Zealand. What’s not to love?
All that said, this will be the first year I do a hautapu at home. I have been an avid participant and sometimes organiser of public Mātariki events.
But I have had some reservations about doing a hautapu at home.
Mostly it is because my own reo Māori is still fairly rudimentary. I find learning te reo Māori unbelievably hard, and like many people, I understand much more than I can say.
It has been that way for a long time. So I have been reluctant to engage with the karakia that is important in a hautapu because I don’t want to be performative. Intention is the core purpose of Matariki after all.
But as more and more people engage with Matariki and more support is available, well, my nerves are just that. So nerves be damned.
If intention is the principle, then that matters the most.
This makes me enormously grateful to all those who over the years have provided the education, the workshops, the support and resources that make it possible to do a hautapu at home with some certainty I can do it well enough.
Not that my pronunciation will be great when I recite the karakia. And the kai offering will probably be breakfast. And whether we wake early enough to see Matariki is mokopuna-dependent.
But we will remember the names of our own who have died over the last year and imagine Te Waka o Raki gathering them all up to become stars. We will celebrate hanging out together and having a new day to do fun things.
And we will have a conversation about what we intend for te tau hou, the new year, what we want to learn, what we want to create and what we want to share with the people around us.
And all of that will be enough, more than enough even. No presents, no spending heaps of money, just hanging out and being grateful that we can, with a whāngai hautapu, a ceremonial offering of food to the atua.
If you are thinking about what you might do at home, there are easy places to find helpful and accessible information.
The website www.matariki.com has excellent written resources you can download and use, including the karakia and what to do and in what order. I am relying heavily on those resources too.
There are all the fabulous public events on the DCC website and the big gig at Forsyth Bar Stadium tonight that is family friendly. We might see you there.
Mānawa maiea te putanga o Matariki. Mānawa maiea te ariki o te rangi. Mānawa maiea te Mātahi o te Tau.
Celebrate the rising of Matariki. Celebrate the lord of the skies. Celebrate the new year.
• Associate Prof Metiria Stanton Turei is a law lecturer at the University of Otago and a former Green Party co-leader.
