Jane Johnson-Matua is one of the local artists featuring in the Under the Stars exhibition. Photo / Andrew Warner
There is an abundance of special events on this month, inviting the Rotorua community to come together and celebrate Matariki.
Matariki, this year celebrated on June 24, is the nationally recognised Māori New Year. It is also the name of a cluster of stars, known in European tradition as the Pleiades.
According to legend, the stars are the eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea, who threw them to the sky in anger after seeing his brothers separate their parents, Papatūānuku and Ranginui.
Te Pō Kitakita, a Matariki Celebration is being held at The Arts Village on Thursday, June 23 from 5.30pm to 8.30pm.
The event will include live music, free tamariki/whānau art activities that the whole family can enjoy and the chance to learn about Matariki.
The on-site cafe, Hello Stranger on Hinemaru, will be open for hot chocolates, coffee and kai.
The Arts Village's Matariki exhibition, Under the Stars, is also currently on show in the Wallis Gallery until June 25.
This exhibition was open to all Rotorua-based artists, amateur or professional, to submit their artworks about Matariki.
More than 100 artists ended up submitting more than 100 pieces.
These include a real mixture - raranga, canvas, mirror, fabric, pottery, uku, wood, photography, sculptural pieces and mahi whakairo.
The Arts Village director Kellez Mcmanus says the purpose of this exhibition is to celebrate Matariki, to help the Rotorua community learn about Matariki, and for community members to express what Matariki means to them.
"We have some special art pieces this year featuring some of The Arts Village kaimahi and some of our board," she says.
"It feels really comforting to know that we can get such a good response for a first-time community exhibition, and that the community were keen to get involved.
"I think it is great to use art to help celebrate Matariki because everyone has their own perspective. Art has the ability to put you in that place and to provoke you to look deeper.
"If you have very little understanding of Matariki this exhibition will help."
Jane Johnson-Matua is one of the local artists featuring in the Under the Stars exhibition.
She says her piece is about connections and experiences. She is currently working with youth, which is where the inspiration came from, and she in turn wants to inspire the youth of today.
"It's about making connections, bringing out knowledge and being able to pass it on in whanaungatanga."
She says in this body of work the figures crafted from stylised corkscrews are doing a waiata, and that depending on where the light hits, shadows change and creates movement.
Jane says this exhibition is a great way to celebrate Matariki as it works with the community and brings people together.
The city's inaugural Matariki civic ceremony will provide locals and visitors the opportunity to participate in a traditional umu kohukohu whetū.
To honour Matariki being observed as a public holiday, Rotorua will hold an umu kohukohu whetū on Friday, June 24, 5.30am to 7am at Motutara Point (Sulphur Point) on the shores of Lake Rotorua.
Ngāti Whakaue representative Kingi Biddle says the civic ceremony is about re-establishing events that were traditionally held at the time of Matariki.
Umu kohukohu whetū is a way Māori exercise reciprocity with the atua and stars.
A hāngī is made with different food which relate to the individual stars of Matariki.
When the kai is cooked, it is placed on a tūāhu (platform), and the essence is enveloped into the smoke. As the smoke rises it feeds the stars of Matariki.
The second part of the umu kohukohu whetū would traditionally take place at dawn, where people say the names of loved ones who had passed away the previous year. The names are lifted and travel into the stars to become stars themselves.
Kingi says Matariki and mātauranga have practical aspirations to help a person move on with their lives, so he is pleased the Te Arawa event has been opened up to the entire Rotorua community.
"Together we can grieve, together we can acknowledge our atua, and together we can heal the losses of the past year."
A free return shuttle will be available for kaumātua/elderly between the carpark and ceremony location.
Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick says on this first official public holiday to honour Matariki, she hopes locals will participate in the events that are being held in Rotorua, including the civic ceremony at Motutara Point which has been organised by Te Arawa.
"It's great to see a variety of events, including the very first Kupu Māori Writers' Festival which I know the organisers are planning to build on in future years."
She says participating in Matariki events is a great way to learn about this traditional time of year for Māori, and importantly for us in Rotorua, to learn about what Matariki means to Te Arawa.
"Speaking for myself, I have found going to Matariki events very moving and profound – it is a hopeful celebration, not only a time to reflect on the past and lost loved ones, but to also be optimistic about the future."
The Matariki Glow Show is back with an all-new, giant-scale puppet show for tamariki, educators and whānau.
It is being held on Saturday, June 18, 11am to 11.50am and 1pm to 1.50pm, at the Energy Events Centre.
Presented by Little Green Man Productions, Matariki Glow Show features glow-in-the-dark characters and is an upbeat show that 'edu-tains' and engages, with patai (Q&A) afterwards.
The 2022 show relates to whakatauki (proverbs) at Matariki, with a strong theme of togetherness.
Tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.co.nz.
The stars will shine brightly on the culinary scene in Rotorua this winter with eateries across the city encouraged to create a special Matariki-themed dish for the Matariki Dish Challenge.
The event will run in Rotorua from June 13 to July 17, whereby participating cafés and restaurants throughout the city will add their iteration of the Matariki food story to their menus.
RotoruaNZ business development manager Vanessa Wallace says, "The Matariki Dish Challenge provides a wonderful opportunity for our local hospitality sector to participate in an event that celebrates Matariki and what it means for Aotearoa New Zealand.
"The challenge is new to Rotorua and the wider BOP region which is exciting in itself. We know that locals and visitors alike will also enjoy the chance to try new dishes from many of our favourite eateries."
All eateries taking part will be mystery judged, with the top three being re-visited by the head judge to determine the 2022 champion, who will be presented with a specially commissioned taonga in early August.
Diners can also participate by rating the dishes online to determine the People's Choice winner.
For more information, go to the Rotorua Matariki Dish Challenge website and follow the event news on Facebook.
The Rotorua Library is also holding Matariki Tauira from June 25 to July 3, where every day people can learn as each of its Matariki Tauira|Students of Matariki 2022 present their own interpretation of a star from the Matariki whānau.
There is also KUPU: Ngā Ringa Tuhituhi coming up, a Māori writers festival that is premiering this year as a precursor to New Zealand's first Matariki public holiday.
KUPU will be held from June 12 to 18 in Rotorua with the overall aim of celebrating Māori writers - past, present, and future.
For more information on Matariki Tauira and KUPU: Ngā Ringa Tuhituhi events, go to www.rotoruanui.nz.
The community is also being reminded that photos need to be in by Monday to be included in this year's Matariki Memorial Tribute Video.
The tribute video is to commemorate loved ones who have passed on since the rising of Matariki in July 2021 to its setting in June 2022.
This special memorial slideshow will be posted at dawn on Tuesday, June 21.
If you have a loved one who has passed within the last year, and you would like them to be included in the tribute video, send their photo, their name, and date of passing to matarikitributes@gmail.com by Monday.
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