MATARIKI FESTIVAL

JUMPING FOR MATARIKI: Seton McKinnon, 12, Tenzing McKinnon, 9, Kahanui Niwa, 8, and Esca Niwa, 7, enjoy the bouncy castle at Thursday’s Matariki Twilight Festival. Pictures by Liam Clayton

Te Wānanga o Aotearoa’s (TWOA) Whirikoka campus celebrated Matariki with a twilight street food market offering kai and whanaungatanga on Thursday. Big crowds were treated to kai carts, local craft vendors, and activities for tamariki.

The rising of the stars of Matariki (and Puaka/Puanga) every winter heralds the end of one lunar year and the dawn of the next within te Ao Māori. It is the time to farewell those who have passed away in the previous year, to celebrate the end of the harvest period and to prepare for the year ahead.

This year marked the first Matariki public holiday – the correct time to observe Matariki is considered to be between June 21 to June 24.

TWOA tauira recruitment officer Chanel Coromandel said the event was well-received.

“It was really awesome, it had really good community engagement. That’s what we wanted, to get the mahi of what we are doing at the wananga out there so people were able to see what we are doing and be a part of that.

“There was a really good turn out. A big thank you to the community for coming and also the vendors because for a lot of the vendors it was the first time they had come along. It was really lovely to have people there to help and support the event and we would like to have more in the future.”